The National Seeds Corporation (NSC), a public sector undertaking under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, has started selling seeds online using the ONDC platform to expand its reach. Weekly sales have exceeded ₹16,000 since its launch in December last year.
“It was never tried earlier since NSC was comfortable with business as usual. But the interests shown by the customers indicate that there is a big market to be tapped. Being a government company, people know that the seeds are genuine and there will not be any cheating even if they purchase online,” said Maninder Kaur Dwivedi, Chairman and Managing Director of NSC.
As many as 172 seeds and planting materials worth ₹16,443 were sold from 8 locations of NSC during August 11-17, she said. “Recently NSC launched vegetable kitchen garden seed kit of 120 gm packet at ₹150, where 12 different seasonal vegetable crop seeds are packed in one,” she said, adding people may be interested in buying those.
However, maximum online sales are taking place in vegetables and floriculture seeds which show the normal penetration of ONDC among urban consumers.
Basmati seeds
The public sector seeds company has also been offering certified seeds of Pusa Basmati through MyStore platform. Farmers mostly take Pusa Basmati from the Delhi-based Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) where the availability of certified seeds is very limited.
Dwivedi said sales are happening from different locations of NSC offices so that the transit time and costs are minimised till it reaches the customers. Special care has been taken to ensure plants reached safely at the buyer’s place, she added.
In 2022-23 fiscal, NSC had reported a net profit of ₹53 crore after the turnover jumped 21 per cent to ₹1,112 crore.