Sales of hybrid rice seed go slack

Hybrid rice seed sales go sluggish, as growers are losing interest in it mainly because of low market price of coarse rice, officials of leading seed companies said yesterday.
They also blamed late harvest of Aman crop for sluggish demand which some fear might hit overall sales and cultivation coverage this year.
“It appears seed sales will decline this year from a year ago,” Sudhir Chandra Nath, programme manager of Agro-marketing Division of Brac, an nongove-rnmental organisation that is engaged in such seed sales.
The fear of slack sales comes as the government sets a target of bringing about 10 lakh hectares of land under hybrid paddy cultivation during the current boro season, eyeing production of about 48 lakh tonnes of hybrid rice as part of attaining food security.
There is hardly any chance of gaining such achievement, as sales scenario is very discouraging,” said Mahbub Anam, president of Bangladesh Seed Growers, Dealers and Merchants Association.
Anam feared that hybrid cultivation area might be 30 percent lower than the target this year.
Hybrid rice was cultivated on more than 8 lakh hectares of land last year with production standing at about 37.25 lakh tonnes, according to preliminary estimates of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.
Seed sellers said more than 7,000 tonnes of hybrid rice seed were sold in the last boro season. This year sales volume might be lower than it was in the previous year, they added.
“Farmers are showing more interests in planting high yielding varieties BR-28 and BR-29 to reap price benefit,” said Nath of Brac.
“Till November last year, we distributed about 1,500 tonnes of seed to dealers. This year, distribution amount is about 900 tonnes,” said the official of the NGO, which slashed its sales target to more than 1,450 tonnes this boro season, about 20 percent the down previous year.
Nath anticipates a sales-drop in some major hybrid rice cultivation belts --Mymensingh, Jamalpur and Sherpur region.
“There is a very good market in these areas. But signs of dip in sales are there,” he said.
However, one silver lining is the recent rise in demand for hybrid rice seed in the north, the main boro crop production area.
“Market demand is comparatively slow this season. But now we are not so depressed as we were in the pre-Eid-ul Azha period. Demand in the north has picked up after Eid,” said Mohammed Masum, chairman of Supreme Seed Company, the leading hybrid rice seed marketer.
“If demand continues to remain vibrant among farmers in the north, we may have achieved our sales target,” he said, adding that his firm wanted to sell about 2500 tonnes of hybrid rice seed in the boro season.
Masum also linked late harvest of second biggest rice crop -- Aman -- to slow demand for seed, sales season of which normally hovers between mid-October and end-November.
“But this year, sales season appears to start late as Aman is yet to be harvested in many places,” he said, expecting a continued seed demand until the month-end.
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