CIC says easing food crisis, not creating one

Hybrid seeds produced by CIC will only help Sri Lanka to increase food production and get over a food crisis and not cause a food crisis, says the CIC group.

The company was commenting on a statement made by farmer groups last week, and reported in this newspaper, where the CIC group was accused of producing seed varieties that are highly productive for one season but do not produce a second generation. Athla Priyantha, a former vegetable farmer from Welimada, who now is actively involved in campaigning for small-timers, was quoted as saying that large-scale farming should be abolished.

Clarifying the issue, CIC Seeds (Pvt) Ltd, in a statement said that the CIC group is the biggest seed producer in the country and as such is fully into the production of hybrid seeds and non-hybrid seeds.

“As the hybrid seeds are very much more productive than the non-hybrid seeds, farmers in Sri Lanka and the world over prefer to use hybrid seeds. Farmers obtain a bigger harvest and higher income by using hybrid seeds than using non hybrid seeds. Today it’s not only CIC but other private sector companies and the Department of Agriculture which comes under the Ministry of Agriculture, are also involved in the production of hybrid seeds. In an era where the land available for cultivation is diminishing and the population is increasing the need to obtain higher yields and a greater productivity has become the challenge to agriculturist in Sri Lanka and world over. Thus the advent of hybrid seeds is viewed as a way of facing up to this challenge,” the statement said.