Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Thanh Namhas issued an official copy of 2015's national seeds reserve, with thegoal of providing enough seeds and seedlings for nationwide agriculturalproduction.

Farmers nationwide will receive 1,667 tonnes ofplant seeds, 1,400 tonnes of rice seeds and 267 tonnes of maize seeds.The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) asked reserveunits to supply the seeds and seeds free of charge.

The centralseeds company will provide 790 tonnes of rice seeds and 190 tonnes ofmaize seeds, while the southern seeds joint-stock company plans tosupply 280 tonnes of rice seeds and 42 tonnes of maize seeds. ThuaThien-Hue domestic animal and seedling joint-stock company will provide330 tonnes of rice seeds and 35 tonnes of maize seeds.

The ministry's farming department will be in charge of distributing seeds to the provinces that need them.

Theministry also asked the Central Fruit and Plant Seeds Company to supply13.7 tonnes of vegetable seeds from the national reserve fund. Thisincludes 3 tonnes for the northern province of Lang Son, 8 tonnes forQuang Tri, 1.5 tonnes for Phu Yen and 1.2 tonnes for Khanh Hoa.

Local authorities will be responsible for allocating seedlings to farmers and report to the ministry every month.

TranManh Bao, General Director of Thai Binh seedlings joint-stock company,said the Government should set up a law on seedlings and improveadministrative procedures to recognise new seedlings.

A strategyto develop the agricultural seedling sector is in the works. Currently,65 percent of hybrid rice seeds are imported.-VNA