Before COVID-19 hit the world, the problems encountered in the seed sectors were lack of promotion and advertising campaigns, lack of research, varieties development. Amongst this pandemic, problems encountered in the seed sector are mentioned below:
i) Several restrictions on the movement of seed from country to country and within a place to place to ensure less spread of virus have put forth a situation of the downfall of economy and conditions of food insecurity.
ii) Most particularly developing countries like ours have been especially hit hard by the economic downturn as we are mostly reliant on agriculture as a main source of economy.
iii) We were previlaged with good quality seeds whenever and wherever required but this situation of the pandemic has created a shortage of seeds because the seeds produced in the farmer’s field are not getting proper access to transport and dissemination, if any, they are being blocked and kept for inspection which is only causing further delay.
iv) The price of transportation has hiked after pandemic struck, so the cost of transportation is added to the seed’s price making the seeds more expensive to purchase and not everyone can afford it.
Following are the recommended solutions that can be put into actions:
i) To overcome any problem, a proper plan and its implementation are very crucial.
ii) Some solutions that can trigger the wellbeing of seed sectors can be investments for research over plant breeding, seed production sectors, seed trade, government efforts towards providing enough subsidies, recruiting trained manpower.
iii) The national-level program should be conducted in the seed sectors by the informal system.
iv) Encouraging the farmers by providing them knowledge about the quality of seeds so that they can distinguish between good and bad ones.
v) Encouraging poly houses and off-season farming.
