Ranchi, Jan. 10: Birsa Agriculture University (BAU) will market its own packed and certified seeds to farmers through their different sale counters to be established soon.

Although the university is yet to get a single seed patented, the initiation of the step will help in making the developed and high quality seeds available to a larger number of farmers in comparison to the existing nominal ones.

As of now, although the university, after its research work, comes out with developed and good quality seeds, officials said, it cannot reach to a larger section of the farmers of the state as the distribution is not done in a proper way by the government. The university officials added that within the next one year, the sale counters will be opened through different Krishi Vikas Kendras.

BAU dean (agriculture) A.K. Sarkar told The Telegraph: ?Till now, the seed committee of the state government sends the recommendation about producing the desired amount of seeds to the university after which it is being provided to the farmers. But many are there who cannot procure the seeds or they do not reach them.?

When asked about any patented seeds, the university officials said although there are a few seeds, which have done well at the national level, there is none which can be said to be in the patented category.

One of the reasons, a section of the officials said, is the lack of a central patent policy, while others pointed out that the seeds developed after extensive research are location specific.

Some seeds perform well in some particular state others fail miserably there. However, there are a few seeds like T-9 (Urad section), IR-36, Birsa Gold and others are doing well both in the state and the national level.