Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah, in the Lok Sabha, stated that as per the information provided by BBSSL, more than 1,40,000 farmers have benefited through its production and distribution programs of ‘Bharat Beej’.
The Ministry of Cooperation has set up Bharatiya Beej Sahakari Samiti Limited (BBSSL) under the Multi-State Cooperative Societies (MSCS) Act, 2002 to undertake production, procurement, and distribution of quality seeds under the brand name ‘Bharat Beej’, and to develop a system for preservation and promotion of indigenous natural seeds.
BBSSL is expected to help increase the production of quality seeds in India, thereby reducing dependence on imported seeds, enhancing agricultural production, boosting the rural economy, promoting “Make in India”, and contributing to Atmanirbhar Bharat.
The society will focus on production, testing, certification, procurement, processing, storage, branding, labelling, and packaging of two generations of seeds, foundation and certified—by leveraging various schemes and policies of different ministries of the Government of India.
BBSSL will achieve its objectives by leveraging the strength of the cooperative network. This will help in realizing the goal of “Sahakar se Samriddhi” through the inclusive growth model of cooperatives, where members will benefit through better price realization via the production of quality seeds, higher crop yields using High-Yielding Variety (HYV) seeds, and dividends distributed from the surplus generated by BBSSL.