Farmers in Maharashtra may soon be able to purchase hybrid varieties of Bt Cotton seeds at just R350 per packet.
Maharashtra agriculture minister Pandurang Fundkar made an announcement to this effect at the ongoing lesiglative assembly session in Nagpur.
These seeds are currently being developed by state agricultural universities and contain Bt cotton under licence from Monsanto, industry observers said.
According to the minister, the seeds will be made available to farmers for R350 per pack of 450 grams.
According to industry observers, these seeds may be made available to farmers through government agency Mahabeej and state agriculture universities. Monsanto has a joint agreement with Mahabeej along with universities in the state.
This project is part of an all India integrated research project including Rahuri Agricultural University, Vasantrao Naik Agricultural University, among others.
According to R V Game, MD, Mahabeej, his agency is one of the organisations that would supply the seed to farmers. The minister said that Bt cotton is planted on 98% of the area in the state and this season cotton has been planted on 38 lakh hectares. Significantly, the government has fixed price of Bt cotton seed at R800 per packet (of 450 grams), which include R49 as royalty fee to technology providers, for the 2016-17 season.
Farmers bought Bt cotton seeds in the price range of R830-1,000 per packet across the country in 2015-16 season. The Agriculture Ministry in December last issued an order to control cotton seed prices including trait or royalty value and a committee was set up to recommend the seed price.