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Indian seed industry has shown an annual growth rate of 15.7% during 2011-2018 and is further expected to grow at a CAGR of 13.6% during 2019-2024, reaching a value of US $ 9.1 Billion by 2024. For any seed system to be viable and sustainable it requires a great deal of efforts through the right kind of laws, acts and policy framework and interventions as its essential pre-requisites. Due implementation of some progressive policies by the government of India, seed market has witnessed a major restructuring. These policies bought relaxed seed trade norms, reduced import restrictions on germplasm, encouraged foreign investments, supported quality seed production, plant variety protection, farmers and breeders right protection. Covid-19 pandemic and restrictions imposed had tremendous impact on the seed industry. The policy response and initiatives taken up by the government to address the problems by adopting various strategies helped in the uplifting the farming community. By classifying agriculture sector as essential, it eased in the continuous movement of the seed. This review gives insight about how the Indian seed legislation helped to increase the growth rate of Indian seed industry and also impact of covid-19 pandemic on seed sector.

Background: The agricultural sector is highly dependent on the availability and quality of seeds for a productive harvest. The global demand for food and water is expected to increase due to population outgrowth, urbanization and climate change. Soilless farming may change the face of agriculture by providing a more sustainable and productive alternative to traditional cultivation and is being largely exploited for vegetable cultivation. Methods: The experiment consisted of 12 treatments. Two parental lines (P1: TAG 1 and P2: TAG 2) were subjected to seed treatment (S1: Untreated and S2: Thiram @ 2g kg-1 and chlorpyrifos @ 3g kg-1) and twenty-eight days old seedlings were transplanted to soil (M1: Conventional) and soilless systems (M2: Hydroponics and M3: Aeroponics). Hybrid seeds were produced in all the system were analysed for the quality and economics of seed production in soilless system was worked out. Result: The results revealed that there was a significant increase in test weight (0.39 g), average seed length (0.52 cm) in the soilless system due to the continuous availability of nutrients at controlled condition. Although the cost incurred was comparatively higher in the soilless method, the gross return was 94.68 per cent higher under aeroponics and 79.22 per cent higher under hydroponics compared to the conventional method. The benefit to cost ratio was found higher in aeroponics (2.08) followed by hydroponics (1.97) and lower under the conventional method (1.87). It is inferred that soilless agriculture could be a promising tool for quality and healthy hybrid tomato seed production throughout the year within protected cultivation.

Seed deterioration during storage is associated with various metabolic and chemical alterations that vary among genotypes in soybean. In the present study, five genotypes with good storability viz., kalitur, MACS 1416, EC 18761, CO1 and DSB21 and five genotypes with poor storability viz., JS 71-05, DS 228, MAUS 61, NRC 93 and DSB 24 were selected and evaluated for biochemical changes to identify the best donors for storability. Among the genotypes, all the poor storer genotypes showed faster accumulation of free amino acids, free fatty acids and malondialdehyde content as a result of oxidative stress. Poor storer genotypes also showed the increased lipoxygenase I and II enzymes activity. All the good storer genotypes showed higher anti-oxidative enzymes activity causing slower lipid peroxidation. Among the good storers, kalitur showed favourable biochemical features for storability while MAUS-61 was identified as poor storer exhibiting less favourable biochemical features.

The present study was based on primary data collected for 100 farmers from Gulbarga district of Karnataka during the agricultural year 2013-14. Tabular and discriminant function analysis was used in the present study. The analysis of data shows that the total cost of cultivation in pigeonpea seed production was around 23 per cent higher than grain production. The variable cost was comparatively higher in seed production (26936 per ha) over grain production (20698 per ha). The gross return was about 32 per cent higher in seed production than grain production and net return from seed production of pigeonpea was 44 per cent higher than grain production. The discriminant analysis indicated that gross return with 55.88 per cent followed by seed (18.52 per cent), human labour (8.35 per cent), manures and fertilizers (7.01per cent), bullock and machine labour (5.99 per cent), plant protection chemicals (4.26 per cent) contributed to discriminate between the seed and grain production of pigeonpea. The net return from pigeonpea seed production was encouraging, therefore the area under seed production may be increased for higher profitability and timely supply of quality seed to the farmers.