Government officials have been claiming that the production of grainless maize cobs in five districts -- Bara, Parsa, Rautahat, Sarlahi and Nawalparasi -- was due to unfavorable temperature and impacts of climate change. However, farmers are arguing that the maize cultivation failed due to defective hybrid seeds imported from India. [break]
“We have started collecting hybrid seeds from dealers in the concerned districts for investigation,” Tirtha Rijal, senior scientist at Rampur Maize Crop Research Center - the state owned maize research farm - said at an interaction on Monday.
Rijal told myrepublica.com that the collected seeds would be planted in different locations, including affected districts, to know the reasons behind the failure of the maize crop. “We will start cultivation of maize in different seasons and in different locations from the coming season,” Rijal added.
Meanwhile, scientists have raised concerns over the government apathy to promote ´Gaurav´ seeds, the only hybrid seed developed locally, among the farmers and expressed their dissatisfaction over huge imports of hybrid seeds.
“It has already been six years that we developed ´Gaurav´ hybrid seeds. However, no initiative has been taken to promote it. It´s high time the government came up with the policy to promote Nepali hybrid seeds to reduce dependency on hybrid maize seeds developed elsewhere,” Chandra Bahadur Kunwar, a scientist affiliated with Hill Maize Research Project (HMRP), said.
Bhanu Pokharel, another maize expert, said the government is lacking concrete policy on development on hybrid seeds despite increasing demands and subsequent rise in imports.
The government recoded 576 tons of hybrid seeds in 2009.
Related story
NARC starts research on developing aromatic rice
