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With seed prices stagnating for the last four years, cottonseed companies have stepped up pressure on the cotton-growing States and the Union Government to increase the prices at least for the ensuing kharif season keeping in view a sharp increase in production costs.
As they prepare sale schedules across the country ahead of the season which generally begins in June with the onset of monsoon, companies through national and local associations have represented to the Government and requested it to fix the price at Rs 850 a seed packet with Bollgard-I (BG-I) technology and Rs 1,050 for BG-II seeds.
Sources said the Andhra Pradesh Government might allow a raise in prices. They, however, declined to comment on the quantum of hike.
“The prices have not been revised for the last four years. Cost of production has gone significantly during the period and we have approached all the Governments, asking them to increase prices,” Mr Harish Reddy, Secretary of National Seeds Association of India (NSAI) and Managing Director of Ganga Kaveri, told Business Line .
In a four-page letter to the Commissioner and Director of Agriculture of Andhra Pradesh, Dr P Sateesh Kumar, President of Seedsmen Association, said the Government had put a cap of Rs 750 on BG cotton (at that time there was no BG-II) seeds by invoking the provisions of Andhra Pradesh Cotton Seeds Regulation of Supply, Distribution, Sale and Fixation of Sale Price Act.
Two years later in 2008, when BG-II made its mark, the Government directed the companies to sell the second generation seed at Rs 750, while reducing BG-I seed price to Rs 650 a packet. In 2010, it reduced trait value (the amount paid by seed companies to the technology provider Mahyco-Monsanto), creating a furore in the seed industry. A top executive of a seed company said on condition of anonymity that this move had not helped. “We had to pay the difference later as were bound by contractual agreements with the technology provider,” he said.
“We have received their plea. The Commissioner has convened a meeting on Friday of all stakeholders, in Andhra Pradesh to discuss the issue,” Mr V Nagi Reddy, Principal Secretary (Agriculture), said.
The Government wrote a letter to seed companies and growers, asking them to attend the meeting. Cottonseed prices in the State act as a bellwether for the rest of the country ever since the State engaged in an animated battle with technology provider Mahyco-Monsanto over the maximum retail price (MRP) on BG seeds.
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