Jute Research Programme in Itahari, Sunsari has produced eight different improved varieties of wheat seeds totalling 22 tonnes this year.The programme diversified its research to producing improved varieties of wheat, paddy and lentils seeds. It used to produce only jute seeds.

The research office said that the objective to produce seeds is aimed at making optimum utilisation of government’s land that has been housing agricultural firms.  “We have produced 22 tonnes of improved varieties of wheat seeds this year under the government’s policy to making the country self-reliant on seeds,” said Govinda Timsina, a senior scientist at Jute Research Programme. “Out of 31 bigas of land, we have been producing seeds on 25 bigas.”

According to him, jute seeds are normally produced during mid-March to mid-July. After that, the land normally is left idle.

“Now, we have started to better utilise the land.” Under the programme, 3 tonnes of jute seeds are produced annually estimating jute cultivation coverage areas of 10 bigas. Wheat and lentil seeds are produced during the winter period, while paddy and jute seeds are produced in summer.

Timsina said that they had a target of producing 7.5 tonnes of wheat seeds, but managed to produce 22 tonnes. The produced varieties are NL-1055, NL-297, Bijay, Gautam Swargadwari, Dhaulagiri, Tillotama and Aditya. Likewise, 100 kgs of lentils seeds were also produced.

“Besides, wheat seeds, we have also produced improved varieties of paddy seeds this year during the summer plantation season,” he said.

The programme had targeted producing 25 tonnes of paddy seeds of different varieties like Sukhha 3, Sambha sub-1, swarna sub-1, Kanchhi Mansuli and Hardinath. These improved varieties of paddy seeds are tolerant to extreme climatic changes stress like drought, flooding or submergence.

According to the government’s statistics, the rate of seed replacement in Nepal is 11 percent, and under National Seed Vision 2013-25, the government plans to increase the rate to 25 percent for cereals by 2025.

Due to the lack of improved varieties of seeds, Nepal’s agriculture has been suffering from low productivity particularly in the cereal crops.