KRIBHCO supplies 80,000 quintals of certified wheat seed to UP farmers annually

Lucknow: Ahead of Rabi sowing, KRIBHCO supplies around 80,000 quintals of certified wheat seed to farmers in Uttar Pradesh every year, and pays farmers who grow its seed crop an incentive of about Rs 200 per quintal over the minimum support price, a senior official of the farmers’ cooperative said on Tuesday.

Speaking at a media workshop organised by the Forum for Indian Journalists on Education, Environment, Health & Agriculture (FIJEEHA) in collaboration with Alliance for Change,Transformation & Innovation (ACTION), Rishipal Singh Rathore, State Manager, KRIBHCO Uttar Pradesh, said the seed is processed at KRIBHCO’s plants in Gorakhpur, Aurai, Shahjahanpur and Gajraula and reaches farmers in certified, tagged 40-kg bags. The cooperative also supplies gram and lentil seed.

Rathore said fertiliser supplies in the state remain on course despite lingering uncertainty in global markets after the West Asia conflict, backed by the Government of India’s strong resolve to keep supplies stable. KRIBHCO supplies 10-12 lakh metric tonnes of urea and around 3 lakh metric tonnes of DAP in Uttar Pradesh every year, along with SSP, zinc sulphate, micronutrients, organic manure and bio-fertilisers.

“Our relationship with farmers is not limited to supplying products. Our aim is to make every farmer capable, aware, self-reliant and prosperous, producing more at lower cost while protecting soil and water,” Rathore said.

These inputs reach nearly 2.8 crore farmers through around 8,000 cooperative societies and 10,000 private dealers, besides 42 KRIBHCO Seva Kendras run on a no-profit, no-loss basis. KRIBHCO also conducts around 1,500 training programmes a year for farmers and cooperatives on soil testing, balanced fertiliser use and water management, and has partnered in developing around 3,000 Kisan Samriddhi Kendras in the state.

The state is also home to the Shahjahanpur plant of KRIBHCO’s wholly-owned subsidiary KRIBHCO Fertilizers Ltd, which produced 11.02 lakh metric tonnes of urea and 6.68 lakh metric tonnes of ammonia in 2025-26, running well above rated capacity. KRIBHCO has signed a joint venture with Dutch firm Farm Frites for a hi-tech potato processing unit next to the plant. Its Varanasi unit, one of three KRIBHCO bio-fertiliser plants in the country, produces a range of bio-fertilisers, including Rhizobium and Azotobacter.

Prof. Manish Verma, Department of Sociology, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University, Lucknow, said, “In Uttar Pradesh, the village cooperative society is often the farmer’s first link with the formal agricultural system. When an institution like KRIBHCO works through PACS, it strengthens not just input supply but the social fabric of the village, building trust and economic security for small and marginal farming families.”

Dr. Navneet Anand, President, FIJEEHA, said, “Each Rabi season, Uttar Pradesh does much of the heavy lifting for India’s food security. KRIBHCO’s work through thousands of village cooperatives shows how ‘Sahakar Se Samriddhi’ translates on the ground, with seed, nutrients and know-how reaching farmers through an institution they own.”