As its cotton fortunes shrink, Mahyco targets rice, wheat, vegetable seeds

Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company Pvt Ltd (Mahyco) has stepped up its focus on vegetables and field crops such as rice and wheat, where it sees major potential for hybridisation. This is even as the company’s cottonseed business has shrunk on stagnating acreage under the fibre crop, rising competition and due to the impact of seed price control, among other reasons.

“Field crops and vegetables are a priority to us, while we continue to come up with newer hybrids in cotton. We see major potential for hybridisation in crops such as rice, wheat and maize, among others,” said A Subbarao, Senior Vice-President, Mahyco.

The company has been witnessing faster growth in its non-cotton business in the past couple of years. “Our vegetable seed business, which accounts for around 40 per cent of our revenues, is growing at around 15 per cent annually, while the field crops seed business is growing at 20 per cent,” he added.

Revenue from the cottonseed business has shrunk for Mahyco and now accounts for around 40 per cent of the company's earnings as against 50 per cent four years ago. Mahyco Group revenues, including entities such as Sungro Seeds, stood at around ₹750 crore in 2015-16 as against around ₹900 crore four years ago.

At its R&D farms at Ghanewadi, near Jalna, Mahyco showcased over two dozen new seed products as part of Innovation Day celebrations. A new cotton hybrid that can withstand attacks from sucking pests such as white fly; a new wheat hybrid that makes chapati taste better, virus resistant tomato and chilly hybrids, a bajra hybrid that consumes less water during cultivation are part of the product pipeline it expects to commercialise over the next few years.

The company organised the display — the first such large-scale effort in almost six years — as part of an initiative to strengthen its connect with farmers. Over 2000 farmers from Central, Northern Maharashtra and parts of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh attended the three-day event. “We think it is a powerful method to take new products to our consumers and get direct feedback from them,” Subbarao added.

Mahyco, which introduced Bt cotton in India about 15 years ago in partnership with Monsanto, saw its revenues soar after farmers brought more acreage under the genetically modified fibre crop as the technology provided protection against the dreaded pink bollworm and also boosted yields.

However, with Bt cotton developing resistance to pink bollworm in the last few years and farmers’ preference for other crops such as pulses and maize this kharif, cotton acreage has dropped by about 10 per cent, impacting major players, including Mahyco. In addition, the Government's decision to control the selling price of Bt cotton seeds has also hurt its earnings.

Bharat Char, Biotech Lead, Mahyco R&D, said the company was working with technologies such as marker-assisted breeding to bring newer hybrids into the market. Mahyco is also working on developing crops that are tolerant to drought and salinity, he added.

The writer was recently in Jalna at the invitation of Mahyco