K.K.Poudel1*, L.R. Paudel2 and D. Adhikari1
1Programme manager, KUBK, MoAld, Nepal
1Seed coordinator, KUBK, MoAld, Nepal, and
2General Secretary SEAN, Nepal
*Corresponding email: kaushalpdl@gmail.com
Abstract
Vegetable seeds have been identified as a high value and low volume product which has potential impact in agriculture development. Seed contributes to increase crop productivity by 20-25%. Agro-climatic diversities of Nepal can be utilized to produce large amount of vegetable seeds for internal demand. The internal seed production is in decreasing trend and only 16% of demand was fulfilled by formal source of domestic production. There is huge gap in demand (1873 mt) and production (308 mt) of vegetable seed in the country but this sector is not yet considered and implemented as major sub sector in Nepal. Government has formulated Seed Act, Seed Regulation, National Seed Policy and Seed Vision 2013-25 for creating enabling environment for seed production and marketing. Formally the vegetable seed production was initiated since 1952 from horticulture farms of public sector and it was started by private sector when SEAN was established in 1991.National seed policy assumed assurance of quality seed production and supply, export promotion and import substitution and provisioned foundation seed production at private level whereas seed vision clearly conceptualized and identified seed value chain actors including input output of the seed chain components. This paper aims to explore the present vegetable seed production status, its potentiality, constraints, opportunities and challenges in new federal structure of the country. As the country is always facing shortage of vegetable seeds, the demand for vegetable seeds are always increasing with increase in fresh vegetable production. The vegetable seed production area increased by more than three folds, seed production increased by almost 23 folds and demand increased by almost 6 folds in 2016/17 as compared to 1977/78. The private sector contribution increased drastically from 3.2 mt in 1977/78 to 302.3 mt in 2016/17 after establishment of SEAN. At present, 32 agencies accredited for foundation seed production including private seed companies as envisioned by seed vision. Lack of quality source seeds, consolidated land availability, harmonized buyback agreement, sustainable marketing, effective quality control mechanism and seed processing facilities are the major hindrances in promotion of vegetable seed business in the new federal context of the country.
Keywords: Agro climate, Seed business, Buyback agreement, marketing