The origin of State Farms Corporation of India Limited (SFCI) goes back to 1956 when first mechanized farm was established in the Thar Desert of Rajasthan with the machinery gifted by erstwhile USSR on the eve of the visit of Marshal Bulganin. While inaugurating the first farm at Suratgarh in 1956, the first Prime Minister of India Late Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru called it a ‘ SYMBOL OF RESURGENT INDIA’. Subsequently, late Mrs. Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India remarked, “ the Suratgarh farm has shown us how human will and scientific ingenuity can make desert bloom”.

Later on with the success of large mechanized farm at Suratgarh, many new farms were added in India with the Russian assistance. In 1969, to manage the affair of these farms, an autonomous organization under the Ministry of Agriculture was set up with in the name of STATE FARMS CORPORATION OF INDIA LIMITED.
As on date, SFCI is managing six large mechanized farms situated in 4 states in different agro climatic zones of the Country. The initial idea of setting up these farms was to increase the food production

However, subsequently keeping in view the importance of the seed, when the first National Seed Project came in the country in 1974, the primary object of these farms became the seed production of “HIGH YIELDING VARIETIES ”. Encouraged with the success of seed production in the year 1978, SFCI was also assigned the job of FOUNDATION seed production of different crops to meet out its own requirement of foundation seeds for production of CERTIFIED seed as also to cater to foundation seed requirement of State Seeds Corporations and National Seeds Corporation.

In the year 1982, it was considered expedient by Government of India to utilize the SFCI farms for production of BREEDER seed which is a very scientific and technical job being hitherto handled by Agriculture Universities. Of late, SFCI has also got a mandate from Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) to produce the seed of newly identified but pre-released varieties as TEST STOCK seed for front line demonstrations. Thus, as on date, SFCI is producing Breeder, Foundation, Certified and Test Stock seeds of about 30-35 crops with wide range of about 300 varieties suitable for the farmers from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and Gujarat to Assam. SFCI is the largest seed-producing agency at its own farms in the country, which produces seeds of the highest genetic purity and best quality.