Totagars’ Cooperative Sale Society (TSS) Ltd at Sirsi in Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka has launched ‘TSS Fighter’, a growth hormone for arecanut plants, under its own brand.

Ravish Hegde, General Manager of TSS Ltd, told BusinessLine that ‘TSS Fighter’, which is a pre-monsoon foliar spray, is a botanical extract. The product is aimed at fighting fruit rot disease in the arecanut plantations during the monsoon season.

Stating that this will have to be sprayed around 15 days prior to monsoon, he said this spray helps in building immunity among arecanut plants. This, in turn, helps in controlling fungus that is responsible for the fruit rot disease in the arecanut plantations.

He said that ‘TSS Fighter’ can also be used in pepper and ginger crops apart from arecanut.

On the reasons for launching the own brand, he said though there are other brands in the market, the prices of them are going up every year. To meet the demands from the grower-members, the cooperative decided to launch its own brand, he said.

‘TSS Fighter’ is priced ₹40 less a litre than the other products in the market, he said.

Asked if the cooperative has enough stock to meet the requirements of farmers, he said TSS has kept around 15000 litres of this spray ready for marketing. The cooperative is ready to meet the demands of farmers, he said.

TSS Ltd is a farm cooperative from Sirsi taluk of Uttara Kannada district in Karnataka.