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Bengal seeds corp bags NPC award

Our Bureau

CALCUTTA, Sept. 6

WEST Bengal, which has been increasing its production mainly through the introduction of high-yielding variety (HYV) strains of rice and wheat, has won recognition with one of its corporations - The West Bengal State Seeds Corporation (WBSSC) - bagging the first prize from the National Productivity Council (NPC) for 1997-98 and 1998-99.

The State Agriculture Minister, Mr. Naren De, told presspersons here that while WBSSC had bagged NPC awards on seven occasions earlier, this was the first time that it had been given the first prize and that too for two consecutive years for its performa nce.

Mr. Sumantra Chowdhury, WBSSC Deputy Chairman, said WBSSC, which had started functioning in 1982-83, had recently repaid Rs. 65 lakhs of the Rs. six crores loan it had taken from the State Government. It had also paid a dividend of Rs. 35 lakhs.

Besides developing its own seeds, the corporation encouraged farmers to grow their seeds (which it later bought) and also procured from outside. Its current turnover was close to Rs. 40 crores against Rs. 40 lakhs in the beginning. Seeds production too h ad increased from 700 tonnes in the initial years to around 18,500 tonnes now.

Among the seeds developed were for rice, wheat, oilseeds, pulses, jute and vegetables. Dr. Trivedi said WBSSC was now keen to strengthen its presence in vegetable seeds. However, he ruled out any competition with MNCs on this count saying that while they were mainly involved in HYV seeds, WBSSC would restrict itself to certified seeds.

The corporation had applied for patents for some of the HYV seeds it had developed. Efforts were also on to strengthen exports. In the last three years, it exported seeds worth $17,96,000 to Bangladesh.