Cooperative Minister Amit Shah says that societies will help save indigenous natural seeds from extinction. file | Photo credit: The Hindu
The Union Cabinet has approved the setting up of three national level multi-state cooperative societies to act as an apex body for procurement, processing, marketing and distribution of seeds.
Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday said that the societies will help in “conserving indigenous natural seeds that are going extinct”. In a tweet, he said cooperatives are the only sector that touched crores of people, but were neglected for many years till the Narendra Modi government decided to strengthen them.
The Minister said that the institutions to be constituted are Multi-State Seed, Organic and Export Societies. The societies to be constituted under the Multi-State Co-operative Societies (MSCS) Act, 2002 will develop a system for conservation and promotion of indigenous natural seeds.
The Ministry of Cooperation said in a statement that the production of quality seeds would reduce the dependence on imported seeds and give a boost to the rural economy. The ministry said primary societies, district-, state- and national-level federations and multi-state cooperative societies can become members and elected representatives will be included on the boards of societies under their bye-laws.
role of farmers
The proposed society will help in increasing the seed and variety replacement rates by using a network of all levels of cooperatives, ensuring quality seed cultivation and seed variety tests and farmers’ role in the production and distribution of certified seeds with a single brand name. Will do the ministry said.
“Availability of quality seeds will help in increasing agricultural productivity, strengthening food security and increasing farmers’ income. The members will benefit from both better prices for the production of quality seeds, higher production of crops using high yielding varieties of seeds and dividends distributed out of the surplus generated by the society.