Bangalore, touted as India's Silicon Valley, will be the first Asian city to host the World Seed Congress, from June 7-11, to focus on the potential of India's seed industry in catering to the burgeoning domestic and export markets.

Being organised by the International Seed Federation, in coordination with the Association of Seed Industry and the Seed Association of India, the congress is seen to open up trade opportunities for the fledgling Indian seed industry and help India to learn about the latest technologies to enhance farm production.

With the world's largest arable land area of 168 million hectares, including 54 million hectares of irrigated fertile land, the turnover of the Indian seed industry is estimated at $1 billion. Exports, however, constitute a mere $20 million.

In the private sector alone, about 200 companies, including multinationals and joint ventures play a dominant role in seed production for cereals, cash crops and a variety of fruits and vegetables.

"Though India ranks eighth among the world's top 10 seed producing countries, China is way ahead with its market size estimated at $3 billion as against India's $680 million," declared Manmohan Attavar, chief organiser of the congress, in Bangalore on Wednesday.

Incidentally, the US leads the global seed industry with a whopping $5.7 billion domestic market, followed by China  ($3 billion), Japan ($2.5 billion), Commonwealth of Independent States ($2 billion), Brazil ($1.2 billion), Germany ($1 billion) and Argentina ($930 million).

Ironically, while the agriculture sector constituted around 22.3 per cent of India's GDP during the fiscal year 2002-03, its employment contribution remained at a staggering 70 per cent as against 12 per cent in the industry and 11 per cent in the services' sector.

"Till the 1990s, the Indian economy used to be largely driven by the agriculture sector, with the manufacturing sector dependent on its growth prospects. But the explosive growth in the service sector during the last decade has relegated the farm sector even behind the industrial sector," Attavar lamented.

As a result, during the fiscal year 2002-03, while the services sector contributed a whopping 54.3 per cent to the country's GDP, industrial and agriculture sectors remained stagnant at 23.4 per cent and 22.3 per cent respectively.

Correspondingly, while the service sector grew by 7.1 per cent and the industry by 6.1 per cent, the agriculture sector registered a growth rate of only 3.1 per cent due to severe drought and poor monsoons during the fiscal year under review.

"Being still heavily dependent on small and marginal farmers across the country, the Indian agriculture and seed industry are yet to improvise their production practices for higher yields, including hybrid varieties. In the absence of key technology inputs, the cumulative production continues to remain behind world average yields," Attavar stated.

Except in wheat, where production is higher than the world average yield of 2685kg/hectare, India's yields in rice and other cereals such as maize, sorghum, millet and cotton are far behind the world averages.

For instance, in rice/paddy, Indian yield is 2897kg per hectare against the world average of 3825kg/hectare; maize at 1593kg/hectare against the world's 4085kg/hectare and sorghum at 588kg/hectare against 1415kg/hectare.

"As in the case of manufacturing and communications sectors, the Indian agriculture sector needs to be modernised with the latest implements and infusion of biotechnology.

"Much of the agriculture sector, which continues to be unorganised, needs to be streamlined, and its stakeholders networked with the cutting edge communication and IT tools to move up the value chain.

"Under the World Trade Organisation era, there is an urgent need for a comprehensive legislative and policy framework to increase the share of Indian seeds in the global market," Attavar affirmed.

As against 2002, the outlook for the global seed industry in 2003 is expected to be better, with exports from the US on a rise after a 3-year dip. Driven by global demand for food and fiber, the industry relies on existing resources and development of new technologies to unlock their values for higher returns.