Lessons for promotion of new agricultural technology: a case of Vijay wheat variety in Nepal

Abstract

BackgroundWheat is the third important cereal after rice and maize in Nepal. Its yield suffers from several factors such as lack of reliable irrigation, inclement weather, incidence of disease and lack of improved technology. New virulence race Ug99 (Uganda-99) has threatened all available commercial wheat varieties around the world and Asia. Some of the popular varieties of wheat in Nepal are also getting susceptible to different diseases. Vijay is one of the recently released first Ug99-resistant improved wheat varieties for Terai region in Nepal. Nepal has put special emphasis on the seed production and diffusion of this variety to promote rapidly in the farmers’ fields to mitigate the potential epidemics of newly emerging pathotype of stem rust (Ug99). This variety is being promoted by several organizations and seed companies’ before and after its release. Therefore, this study was undertaken to know the seed supply of Vijay and identify the factors that are contributing for its commercialization.MethodsSunsari, Morang, Rupandehi, Banke and Kailali districts were selected purposely representing Eastern, Western, Mid-western and Far-Western Terai regions of Nepal, respectively. Seed companies, agro-vets (input dealers) and cooperatives involved in Vijay seed multiplication and distribution in the respective districts were selected for the purpose of the study. From the list of agro-vets in respective study sites, a total of 87 wheat seed selling agro-vets were selected randomly as a sample. The sample survey covered 44% of the target population in both categories (dealers and non-dealers of national seed company). Out of total samples, 40% were national seed company dealer agro-vets, while 60% were non-dealers. Multivariate regression analysis was used to find out different factors responsible for commercialization of Vijay seed.ResultsResults indicate that about 67% of the agro-vets were involved in Vijay seed trading and their average time of involvement was 2.65 years. Majority of the agro-vets perceived this variety performed better than other existing popular varieties such as Gautam, Bhrikuti, Aditya and Nepal 297. However, there was still gap in timely supply of the seed. Based on the estimated Certified-1 seed production in 2015/16, Vijay must cover 56.88% (11,943 ha) of total wheat area in Terai, but share of Vijay seed was about 22% of the total wheat seed sold by agro-vets in 2015/16. Nevertheless, it seems that this variety is getting popular in the study area compared to other improved wheat varieties in short time period. The factors influencing commercialization of Vijay were: agro-vets having dealership of national seed company, perception on comparative better performance of Vijay with Nepal 297, total quantity of wheat seed sold by agro-vets and total business transaction of the agro-vets. Moreover, other factors such as pre-release multiplication of Vijay variety by private seed companies and participation on seed related training have found positive contribution on its commercialization.ConclusionIt seems that the current production of Vijay’s breeder seed is more than enough to cultivate in total wheat area in Terai of Nepal if proper seed cycle is maintained. But this is not in reality. NARC should decentralized foundation seed to private actors such as private seed companies, national seed companies and community-based organizations to maximize the resource use efficiency in the seed cycle through introducing effective monitoring and technical backstopping mechanism from public sector. Therefore, the close coordination and commitment of the public and private seed companies, community seed groups, cooperatives and public extension agencies to multiply seeds in subsequent cycles is required. Moreover, awareness program about superiority of Vijay with other improved wheat varieties should be emphasized for the rapid commercialization of the Vijay seed which would be an instrumental to mitigate the potential epidemics of newly emerging pathotype of stem rust (Ug99) in the future.