Pawar showered praises for Seed Corporation

Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar praised the National Seeds Corporation (NSC), saying the agricultural production in the country shot up with the high quality seeds it provided to farmers at reasonable rates. ‘NSC has made substantial improvement and provided high quality seeds to farmers at reasonable rates. This has led to high increase in agricultural production in the country,’ Pawar said while receiving cheques of dividend from the NSC and State Farms Corporation of India (SFCI). The NSC, a category I Mini Ratna company, has achieved a record turnover of Rs.472 crore – 62 percent higher than previous year. It produced more than 15.10 lakh quintals of quality seeds in the current year as against 10.18 lakh quintals during last year, said a statement issued by the Agriculture Ministry. The NSC cheque of Rs.2.26 crore was presented by its CMD, S.K. Roongta. SFCI also presented a dividend cheque of Rs.1.57 crore to the minister. The NSC declared dividend of 11 percent on its paid up share capital which is the highest payout since its inception. The production of oilseeds and pulses increased from 3.89 lakh quintals in 2008-09 to 6.89 lakh quintals during the current year. The production of vegetable seeds registered an increase of 31 percent over the previous year. The turnover of SFCI increased from Rs.195.26 crore in 2008-09 to Rs.266.21 crore in 2009-10 recording an increase of 36 percent. Its net profit increased from 9.77 crore in 2008-09 to 21.53 crore in 2009-10 with an increase of 120 percent. It is for the first time that the corporation paid dividend of Rs.1.57 crore to the central government.