Production of Certified Seeds (Tamil Nadu)

What is the Production of Certified Seeds scheme?

Production of Certified Seeds is a producer incentive of the Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Department, Government of Tamil Nadu. Instead of subsidising the farmer who buys seed, this component pays the farmer who grows seed; specifically, one who raises a registered seed farm, gets the crop certified, and supplies the certified-class seed back to the department for onward distribution.

According to the scheme table on the TNAU Agritech Portal, the incentive is a subsidy of Rs 1,000 per quintal. The rate is listed under the pulses programme for both "Production of Foundation Seeds" and "Production of Certified Seeds", and the oilseeds programme carries the identical Rs 1,000 per quintal figure for seed "produced and supplied to the Department". Eligibility is worded plainly: all farmers who raise seed farms with pulses crops are eligible to avail the subsidy, subject to availability of funds.

Where it sits in the seed chain. Breeder seed comes from research stations. Foundation seed is the first multiplication of breeder seed under strict isolation. Certified seed is the next multiplication from foundation seed, and it is the class that ordinary cultivators buy. Tamil Nadu's public seed system depends on contract growers at the foundation and certified stages, because the department's own State Seed Farms cannot produce the volume the state needs. This scheme is how those growers are compensated for the extra discipline seed production demands.

Why Tamil Nadu keeps funding it from its own budget. Seed subsidy programmes have repeatedly been narrowed at the central level. In the state's Agriculture Budget, the Tamil Nadu government committed Rs 34.72 crore from its own resources for 2026-27 to continue subsidising the production and distribution of certified paddy seed after central assistance for the programme was discontinued. An indication of how the state treats the seed chain as non-negotiable infrastructure.

Who is eligible, and who cannot apply?

You are eligible if:

• You are a farmer in Tamil Nadu raising a seed farm with a pulses crop, blackgram, greengram, redgram, cowpea, horsegram or bengalgram. The oilseeds programme carries the same incentive for oilseed seed growers.
• You registered the field as a seed farm before sowing with the Agriculture Department.
• You sowed source seed of a traceable higher class, normally foundation seed, and can produce the purchase receipt.
• Your field can meet isolation distance requirements and you are willing to allow field inspections during the crop period.
• You supply the produced seed back to the department. The benefit is conditional on supply, not merely on growing.

You cannot apply, or are not eligible, if:

• You did not register the seed farm before sowing. Certification depends on in-season inspection; there is no retrospective route.
• Your source seed cannot be traced to a certified higher class. Farm-saved grain cannot generate certified seed.
• Your field fails isolation or field standards, or the harvested lot fails the germination and physical purity tests at the seed testing laboratory.
• You sell the produce in the open market instead of supplying it to the department. The Rs 1,000 per quintal is tied to supply.
• You are looking for support to buy seed rather than to produce it. That is the separate Distribution of Certified Seeds component, which pays 50 per cent of seed cost limited to Rs 1,200 per quintal.

Within the target, 24 per cent of the benefit is reserved for SC and ST farmers and 20 per cent for farm women.

How to apply to become a seed grower

1. Approach the Assistant Agricultural Officer at your village-level Agricultural Extension Centre well before the sowing season and say you want to register a seed farm for a named pulse crop and variety.
2. Register the field. Submit the seed farm registration form with your chitta and adangal, patta and Aadhaar. The survey number, area and variety are recorded, and the registration fee, where charged, is paid at this stage.
3. Buy and sow certified source seed. Obtain foundation-class seed through the department, the Tamil Nadu State Seed Development Agency or a Tamil Nadu Agricultural University centre, and keep the purchase bill — it is the proof of source class.
4. Maintain the crop to seed standards. Observe the isolation distance from other fields of the same crop, rogue out off-type plants, and keep the field free of designated weed species.
5. Allow field inspections. Seed certification officers inspect the crop at prescribed stages, typically at flowering and before harvest. A failed inspection ends certification for that lot.
6. Harvest, process and deliver. Thresh and clean separately from grain stocks, then deliver the lot to the designated processing unit or seed depot for testing and tagging.
7. Receive payment. Once the lot is accepted, the department pays the procurement value of the seed plus the Rs 1,000 per quintal incentive into your bank account.

What documents are required?

What a seed grower actually earns

The Rs 1,000 per quintal is additional to the price paid for the seed itself. A pulses seed grower delivering, say, 20 quintals of accepted certified seed receives the procurement value of those 20 quintals plus Rs 20,000 as incentive. The economics work because seed commands a premium over grain in the first place; the incentive is compensation for the extra labour of rogueing, the land taken out of ordinary cropping by isolation requirements, and the risk that a lot is rejected.

Seed growers are also given first call on other departmental support. The Tamil Nadu scheme table lists Distribution of Gypsum at 50 per cent of cost plus transport limited to Rs 750 per hectare, manually operated plant protection equipment at 50 per cent or Rs 800, and storage bins under the Seed Village Scheme at Rs 3,000 for a 20-quintal bin and Rs 1,500 for a 10-quintal bin, or 33 per cent of the cost of the bin; as beneficiaries expressly linked to farmers who produce and supply foundation and certified class seed to the department.

How to check the status of your lot and payment

Tamil Nadu does not publish an online tracker for seed grower payments. In practice:

1. Ask the Assistant Director of Agriculture at block level for the inspection report and the seed testing laboratory result for your lot number.
2. Ask the seed processing unit whether the lot has been tagged and taken into stock, because payment follows acceptance.
3. If payment is delayed beyond the season, petition the Joint Director of Agriculture at the district collectorate in writing, quoting your lot number and registration number.

Why seed lots get rejected

• Late registration, which makes certification impossible from the start.
• Insufficient isolation distance from another field of the same crop, risking cross-pollination and genetic contamination.
• Off-type plants not rogued out, detected at field inspection.
• Germination below the prescribed standard, usually from harvesting at the wrong moisture or poor post-harvest drying.
• Mixing with grain stock during threshing or storage, which destroys the physical purity of the lot.
• Funds exhausted for the season, which the department's own condition anticipates.

Where to raise a grievance

• Assistant Director of Agriculture, block level; inspection and lot disputes.
• Joint Director of Agriculture, district collectorate: payment delays.
• Kisan Call Centre 1800-180-1551, the national farm advisory helpline.
• Tamil Nadu e-Sevai grievance portal, for a written, trackable petition.

Registration as a seed grower is done at a government office at posted rates. No agent is needed, and no payment beyond the notified registration fee should be made to anyone.