AGRICULTURE AND IRRIGATION

SEED SUPPLY

THERE ARE SEVERAL METHODS of obtaining the seed required for cultivation. Progressive cultivators pick selected earheads from healthy and vigorous plants in their fields and preserve the seed till the time of next sowing. With other cultivators, the common practice is to obtain the seed either from local merchants or from bigger cultivators who grow their own seed and have a surplus to sell. Tenant farmers of limited means borrow seed from their landlords and make repayment in kind after harvest, with some addition called savai or didki. The well-to-do cultivators bring the stock of their seed from localities renowned for the particular seed. For instance, jirga paddy comes from Ajra. Local vegetable seeds are grown by progressive farmers in the district. Foreign vegetables such as cabbage, cauliflower, knolkhol, etc. are imported and made available to cultivators. There are no seed farms in the district except government farms.

Fruit trees are generally propagated by grafts and seedlings which are obtained from the districts of Ratnagiri and poona. Betel vine gardens are maintained for years together and cuttings for fresh vines are obtained from the garden itself. Tobacco and chilly seeds are obtained by the cultivator from his own field. Sugarcane sets are normally obtained from old plantations in the locality. A nursery for the supply of sugarcane sets is maintained at Kolhapur. There are subsidiary nurseries also, practically in every taluka.

The Department of Agriculture has been active in the work of propagating improved strains of paddy, wheat, and gram evolved at departmental research stations. The following strains (crop-wise) are under extension in the district:-

The nuclear seed obtained from government farms is multiplied in a suitable locality on the fields either of registered or certified seed growers under official supervision. The produce of this seed is then preserved by the cultivator for further distribution either on exchange basis (for quantity to quantity) or with some increase in kind, depending upon the type of grain under exchange and the relations between the two cultivators. In the absence of exchange, seed growers are allowed to sell seeds in cash at current prices. Improved seeds were under distribution as a part of Grow More Food Campaign and have covered so far most of the area suitable for these crops. Improved strains of paddy, wheat and gram are giving fifteen per cent more yield than the local types. On account of good grain and uniform quantity, they also fetch higher prices.

The following table gives the figures regarding seed supply undertaken by the Department in 1954-55 and 1955-56: -

TABLE No. 38.

STATISTICS OF SEED SUPPLY FOR KOLHAPUR DISTRICT, 1954-55 AND 1955-56.

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