Punjab State Seeds Corporation- An Appraisal

Punjab State Seeds Corporation (PSSC) has established its own brand image as a supplier of quality seeds to the progressive farmers who are becoming aware of the advantages of the use of certified seeds for increasing crop yields. The PSSC organise production of certified seeds through contract seed growers as well as shareholder growers. The principal seed crops are wheat, paddy and cotton. Largely, it had been a wheat seed programme because its share was more than two-third of the total seeds produced before 1994 and formed three-fourth and above afterwards. The study brought out that there is no consistency in the seed production programme of the PSSC. The Corporation supplied its seeds to the farmers mainly through the Department of Agriculture. This was because of subsidy provided on seeds by the Department of Agriculture. In order to boost up the marketing of the seeds by the Corporation, the sale needs to be arranged through other sources also. Therefore, a strong network of sale is also required. It is a matter of satisfaction that some of the privately evolved varieties of seeds have popular acceptance among the Indian farming community. The PSSC may collaborate with the private seed companies for distribution of their seeds especially of hybrid seeds in maize, cotton etc. The Corporation did not have high profit because it mainly produced seed of wheat and paddy which are high volume but low value crops. Such a scenario did not result in high profit to the PSSC.