OAR@ICRISATSeed System: The Key for a Sustainable Pulse Agriculture for Smallholder Farmers in the Dryland TropicsM GMulaauthorC VSameer KumarauthorR PMulaauthorSeed is the fundamental life-blood of agriculture and the foundation of a successful farming for smallholder farmers in the dryland tropics. The farmer does make arrangements for many farm inputs but the seed is the primary input. Good quality seeds, which have genetic and physical purity; health standards; high germination and moisture percentage, can increase farmer’s production by about 20-30%. The Green Revolution (GR) program has influenced seed system in the 70’s in vegetables and cereals but not in pulses, which is mainly grown in the dryland tropics. The procedures, through which a cultivar is bred, produced, certified, stored, marketed and used which includes all the channels through which farmers acquire genetic materials and in interaction with the commercial seed industry is known as seed system. The current seed flow in pulses reveals that marketing and usage from a system of free access and/or exchange is limited to seed growers or seed producers, traders (middlemen) and agricultural government agencies. The flow of planting materials is more on the farming community as farmer seed exchanges and barter is preferred than acquiring seeds by cash. Most often the cultivars promoted are the registered seeds or good seeds, limiting the diversity in farmers’ fields.Agriculture-Farming, Production, Technology, Economics2013-04Conference or Workshop Item

For work being deposited by its own author: In self-archiving this collection of files and associated bibliographic metadata, I grant OAR@ICRISAT the right to store them and to make them permanently available publicly for free on-line. I declare that this material is my own intellectual property and I understand that OAR@ICRISAT does not assume any responsibility if there is any breach of copyright in distributing these files or metadata. (All authors are urged to prominently assert their copyright on the title page of their work.)

For work being deposited by someone other than its author: I hereby declare that the collection of files and associated bibliographic metadata that I am archiving at OAR@ICRISAT) is in the public domain. If this is not the case, I accept full responsibility for any breach of copyright that distributing these files or metadata may entail.

Clicking on the deposit button indicates your agreement to these terms.