Speaking to Business Standard, he said the APSDC was in the process of identifying companies that had the seed stock to partner with them. It would buy the parent lines from these companies, which would be raised in lands belonging to individual farmers. The farmers would be paid Rs 300 to Rs 325 for producing 750 gm. "The idea is to peg the price of Bt BG I type of seed at Rs 650 and BG II at Rs 750 per packet," he said.
Once the companies are identified, the corporation would conduct field visits around June this year. Based on the experiences of various seed companies, it has identified 10 parental lines for producing hybrids.
"We would be involved in all stages of seed production from sowing to packaging," he said, adding another round of field visit would be conducted around December, when the lint and the seed from the seed cotton would be separated.
The samples would be drawn around January when cotton processing would still go on. They would be subjected for trait purity tests and sent for a genetic purity test the following month. The results would be studied in April and May. The morphology of the plants would be studied and packaged for release into the markets later.
"We would develop our own hybrids in about two years," he said, adding the corporation had the infrastructure including a testing laboratory and staff for taking up the seed development programme. Based on the results on cotton, the corporation would gradually venture into maize, jowar and other crops.
"We intend to prepare about 500,000 packets including BG I and BG II varieties in the first year of production," he said. The BG I variety is known to be resistant to bollworm while BG II is claimed to be resistant to spodoptera too.
It may be recalled that the Bt seed companies, citing rise in expenditure, have been asking the government to increase the price per packet.
The government rejected their request and has fixed the price of BG I at Rs 650 and BG II at Rs 750 per packet. So far, only one company has come forward to supply seed at the rates prescribed by the government. The state needs 3.5 million seed packets every year.
