Seed replacement for boosting food grains production in Dhanbad district of Jharkhand

Abstract

The majority of Dhanbad population is dependent on agriculture and Farm saved seed (FSS) is commonly used to raise the next crop in predominantly rain-fed Dhanbad. Though the seed is critical, its cost in farmers’ total price of inputs is low as compared to other input factors such as fertilizers, bio- fertilizers, insecticide, fungicides and herbicides including bio- pesticides, land preparation, irrigation and post-harvest management etc. Farmers generally used traditional or stored seed of previous crop to grow new crop is also a main reason for low productivity in the district. Seed is the carrier of technology and the medium for translating scientific achievements to the field. Often, Indian farmers do not distinguish between grain and seed (Chand, 2007). It has been scientifically proved that if farmers use new improved, the yield of the crop may be increased by 20-25 percent depending upon the effective management of the crop it further increased by 35-45 percent