Reason for ban:
Govt. has taken such bold decision in order to protect the interests of domestic seed producers because of the excessive import of seeds from a past few years.
This action has been taken because of the plea filed by the Laghu Udyog Bharati , an organisation which aims to protect the rights of MSME’s. According to Ministry of Commerce’s website , last fiscal import was 83,812 tonnes which is very high and pose a hinderance to domestic producers of watermelon seeds.
Impact:
Price of imported seeds is less as compared to homegrown seeds so by putting a ban on it, prices of domestically produced seeds will increase and will also provide employment of 8 months for the seeds production, extraction, drying and cleaning of it.
Disadvantages of imported seeds:
Though the prices of imported seeds are less but it comes with a hefty cost as well as it results in degradation of soil which ultimately results in more usage of minerals by the farmers. Also farmers who depend on local varieties are not able to cover the cost of cultivation
Production:
Globally China leads in the production of watermelon followed by Turkey , Iran, Brazil. Talking about India some popular varieties are ‘Arka Manik’, ‘Arka Jyoti’, ‘Black Thunder’ etc and is largely grown in states like U.P. , A.P., Maharashtra etc
