Krishidhan Seeds, a leading seed company, is of the view that the delayed monsoon has improved the area under rabi crop cultivation.
The rabi crops covering wheat, mustard, gram, barley, peas and linseed among others are sown during the monsoon withdrawal phase spanning September to April. The company is known for its range of seeds for wheat (Balram and Amber 28), gram (Divya and Indiana 70) and mustard (Aishwarya Gold).
"With the increased rains just before the end of the monsoon phase between June and September, the soil residual moisture indicates a bountiful rabi crop. Therefore, our focus is to achieve varieties that can sustain water stress due to erratic monsoon like what we have just undergone which is known to deliver normal yields. Our R&D has been able to shortlist resilient cultivars which are known to have better yields but also to give tasty grains to the Indian consumers," stated M R Suresh, executive director, Krishidhan Seeds Pvt. Ltd, in an email interaction with FnB News.
"It is true that to some extent the sowing has been delayed due to erratic behaviour of the monsoon. It is expected to affect certain crops like pulses more adversely than other crops. The key objective of Krishidhan Seeds is to improve the farmers' income not only by giving better yielding seeds, but providing them the know-how on better crop management, post-harvest storage methods and an updated commodity price list which could add value to their efforts," he added.
In order to handhold the farmer, the company in 2011, teamed up with MCX, which is India's largest commodity exchange platform which tied up with post offices across the country to provide latest data on various grain prices on a daily basis to the farmers. The information is sought by the farmers from the village post offices where the latest prevailing prices of grains of the nearby mandis are provided. The information allows the farmer to take decision on whether to market his produce or not. The MCX association helps farmers to sell grains at competitive prices and also keep away from dealers for seed requirements.
Further, the company has pan-India presence with over 150 trained agricultural graduates accessing villages to provide quality and timely services to farmers. In addition there is a 24 x 7 tollfree customer helpline centre to address the field-based problems in real time.
"All these activities have brought in considerable goodwill with the farming community which has resulted in increasing demand for the range of seeds," observed Suresh.
