Metahelix plans processing plant in Chhattisgarh

At present, Metahelix has one processing unit in Hyderabad, with a capacity to process and pack 300 tonne of seeds a month

Agricultural biotechnology company Metahelix Life Sciences Limited, a fully-owned subsidiary of Tata enterprise Rallis India Limited, is planning to set up a hybrid maize and rice seed processing and packaging unit in Chhattisgarh by the end of this financial year, said chief operating officer SP Rao.

“We are also evaluating the possibility of setting up a processing plant in Indonesia in a year or two from now, to start with, and subsequently establish similar units in countries like Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Vietnam, the Philippines and Qatar, to which we are already exporting our field and vegetable hybrid seeds,” he told mediapersons here on Sunday.

At present, Metahelix has one processing unit in Hyderabad, the hub of the Indian seed industry, with a capacity to process and pack 300 tonne of seeds a month. The company has its biotech R&D lab in Bangalore, besides 24 trial locations and five research stations across the country. Metahelix currently supplies 30,000 tonne of field and vegetable seeds a year.

The company today launched its hybrid maize seed – MM 2100 – in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Metahelix, which has so far commercialised 18 hybrid maize seed varieties, claims that MM 2100, which was sampled with more than 1,000 farmers across the two states, was targeted at the current rabi season.

“When cultivated at spacing of nine inches between plants and 18 inches in rows, MM 2100 could accommodate 35,000 to 40,000 plants per acre, giving an yield of 40-45 quintal,” Rao said.

Stating that maize was being cultivated in about 3.71 million hectare (ha) in India with a production of 22.23 million tonne a year, Rao said Andhra Pradesh and Telangana were contributing over 20 per cent to this with 5.3 tonne production per ha, as against the national average of 2.5 tonne per ha.

“The seed industry in India is pegged at Rs 12,000 crore, and is growing at 12 per cent year-on-year. Growth in maize hectarage and increasing usage of hybrid rice and vegetable seed varieties are triggering this growth,” he said.