Background Department of Agriculture AP initiated a pilot program in collaboration with NGOs in Anantapur district of AP in 183 villages with 2083 seed producing farmers in 2011-12. The CMSS program has been scaled up to cover 654 villages in 44 Mandals with 9019 seed farmers producing and supplying seed to 14272 farmers in the villages. Protocols of seed production, distribution and channelling of subsidy directly to the farmers’ bank account have been established in the course o f the three years of its implementation. The program integrates Seed Village Program and Seed Subsidy into a decentralized seed system managed by farmers internalising both the processes within a cluster of villages. Following the discussion with the Minister for Agriculture and and the Commissioner, Agriculture, a multi-stakeholder discussion forum was organised to review and deliberate on the modalities of scaling up and institutionalizing the program into the propose “Mana Vittana Kendralu”. Opening Session Ms. Vijayalaxmi, Additional Director Agriculture, Andhra Pradesh convened the meeting with the heads/ representatives of AP State Seed Development Corporation, HACA, OILFED, National Seeds Corporation, ANGR Agriculture University, officials from Seed section of the Department of Agriculture, NGO representatives and farmers involved in Community Managed Seed Systems (CMSS) pilot program and WASSAN. Mr. Z Venkateswar Rao, DDA, Seeds welcomed the participants and introduced CMSS program concept and the Anantapur pilot. CMSS is a three years old pilot program implemented in Anantapur district taken up by the Department of Agriculture in collaboration with local NGOs and WASSAN playing the role of Lead Technical Agency for the program. The Department officials are monitoring and supervising the program and extending technical inputs. NGOs facilitate the pilot at field and support farmers’ groups in managing the program. WASSAN as Lead Technical Agency is involved in designing the program, liaison with state and District authorities, oversight on the program, documentation and conflict resolution. CMSS started in 2011 Rabi season. Seed is produced using Seed Village Program in Rabi and distributed within the village for Kharfi next season under the seed subsidy program. Farmers are getting quality seed in time within the village. Seed producers are getting better price than the market. Through this government is saving Rs. 900-1100 per quintal every year. Farmers purchase seed paying full cost to the seed producers in the village at the time of harvest and get the subsidy from government transferred to their bank accounts directly later on. In a meeting convened by Sri. K. Madhusudhan Rao, Commissioner, Agriculture with officials of seed section and WASSAN on 29th January, 2015 a decision has been taken to scale up the CMSS pilot program and to develop detailed protocols for its institutionalization. Commissioner has asked WASSAN to develop the strategy for the same. Department of Agriculture wanted to expand the scope of the program to cover other crops and areas. With this background DDA, Seeds requested WASSAN to present the concept on “Mana-Vittana Kendralu” and requested all the participants to provide inputs for its improvisation. Presenting the Concept of “Mana Vittana Kendralu” Ms. S. Bhagyalaxmi from WASSAN presented the concept of CMSS and also shared the larger endorsement of the program by farmers, officials, NGOs participating in the district level discussion forum (Charcha vedikka) that APPS, AF and WASSAN, have organized on 24th Jan, 2015 in Anantapur. She later explained the framework of “Mana-Vittana Kendralu” to institutionalize the seed system. The proposal is for developing a farmers’ managed institutional system below the Block level with whom the Department will work. The purpose is to achieve Mandal level self-sufficiency in seeds to support diversification of crop systems, popularizing suitable varieties and ensuring that quality seed is available well in time. The proposed institutional system is a way to integrate the Seed Village Program and subsidy seed distribution. In brief, the framework includes : a) “Mana Vittana Kendram” is a farmer managed institution at the Mandal level (registered over time as an Farmers’ Producer Organisation”. It will have its branches in clusters of villages. The Kendram will also have a seed outlet at the Mandal level. The Mandal Agriculture Officer will liaison and work together with the Kendram. The Kendram registers all the farmers interested in seed production in the Mandal. b) The Vittana Kendralu at the clusters will develop an Annual Seed Action Plan that includes crop, variety and quantity of seeds to be produced within the Cluster. The Kendra will enter into an annual agreement with the seed farmers. Agriculture Department will place the Annual Seed Indent i.e. seed that it requires for subsidy distribution with the VittanaKendram. Seed- Farmer wise targets will be fixed and the Plan for distribution of Foundation Seed/ Stage 1 or Stage 2 seed will be decided under the Seed Village Program. Seed farmers deposit their share of the costs for purchase of foundation seed. Training plan for the seed farmers will also be worked out with dates and resource persons. Seed Certification is necessary; a system of “para-seed certifiers” to support the seed certification agency is proposed to overcome the shortage of human resources in APSSCA. Each Mandal level Manavittana Kendram will be supported with mobile seed processing units. The Cluster level Manavittana kendralu hire these on rental basis on requirement. Cluster level kendralu should have drying platform, storage bins etc in course of time. Subsidy Seed Distribution Subsidy Seed Distribution will happen at the Cluster VittanaKendralu – and managed by the farmers’ groups with support from AEO/ AO. The names of eligible farmers will be maintained in the e-database along with copies of their passbooks. Farmers eligible for seed subsidy will pay their share to the Cluster VittanaKendram or directly to the seed farmer. Certified seed will be distributed at the Cluster VittanaKendralu after processing and required documentation is complete. Subsidy will be released to the bank account of the farmer after sowing the crop. The Mandala Vittana Kendra will also have a counter for sale of seed produced by its seed-farmers. The Mana Vittana Kendra system in the first phase can deal with Self-pollinated crops and Often cross pollinated crops. With experience gained, (in about 2 years) the system can even produce seeds of cross-pollinated crops and hybrids with technical support from the research system. The concept note is attached. Discussion and Suggestions Participants appreciated the concept as novel and expressed that it must be taken forward. They however, have cautioned on the problems that may come up while increasing the scale and adding other crops. Majority of the participants including Mr. Sudhakar, MD, APSSDC, Mr. Venugopal Reddy, MD, APSSCA and Dr. Vishnuvardhan Reddy from ANGR Agriculture University while welcoming the new initiative, stressed on the need to have strategies to minimize risks and to clearly locate the responsibility, if in case some problems occur in germination or at any other stage. The following suggestions came up in the discussion : • There must be a registered legal entity which takes the responsibility of the entire system and quality or facilitating NGO have to take the responsibility. In scaling up NGOs role will be largely limited to organizing the farmers and establishing the farmers’ producer organization i.e. Mana Vittana Kendram. Placing an intense monitoring system and submission of report after intermittent visits by AEOs/AOs will be useful. • Dr. Venugopal Reddy, APSSCA mentioned that Para-certifier system may not fit into their framework and certification law. He assured that APSSCA will take the responsibility of doing certification timely for CMSS. However, he will get back on para- certifier system after carefully looking at the proposition. • Responding to a question raised by an official from Oilfed, Mr. Z Venkateswarlu responded that certification is necessary to get the seed subsidy budgets from the central government. Internalizing the complete seed chain within the Mandal is important to get quality foundation seed and certified seed. He shared the current problems in getting quality foundation / certified seed from the agencies. If ANGRAU supplies sufficient breeder seed to the CMSS system, the same can be multiplied locally and used in SVP for production of certified seed. • Dr. Vishnuvardhan Reddy, ANGRAU said that ANGARU is ready to supply the breeder seed to this system based on indent and MoU. • There was a discussion on price of the breeder seed by ANGARU i.e. Rs.150 /kg and many of the participants expressed that high price is becoming a hurdle for seed production. MD, APSSDC suggested that extension of subsidy to breeder seed production helps in multiplying foundation seed for supplying to SVP. Summing up the discussion, DDA, Seeds reiterated on the larger endorsement of the meeting and all the participants on the concept of Mana Vittana Kendralu / CMSS in general and the framework and the need for taking it forward. He has requested WASSAN to refine the concept in the light of the discussion and points made. He also suggested to initiate planning for seed multiplication (breeder to foundation and to certified seed).