IIHR to commercialise new varieties

Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR) has entered into agreements with private companies to commercialise its latest horticultural innovations under a revenue-sharing arrangement.

The institute, as of now, has provided new varieties in tomato, potato, French bean, chilli among others to private companies for commercialisation.

“In order to transfer the technology to farmers, we have entered into MoUs with private companies to commercialise varieties released by the institute,” said A S Sidhu, director of IIHR , after announcing an upcoming national symposium on molecular approaches on fungal diseases.

He, however, declined to give the names of the companies with which the institute has signed agreements.

As per the arrangement, private companies would have to pay certain amount of money to the institute along with a five per cent royalty on sales. The new varieties will be launched by the private parties under the IIHR brand.

“In the last one-and-a-half year period, IIHR has received around Rs 1.5 crore through the arrangement,” Sidhu said.

Referring to the new varieties, he said that the institute was conducting field trials in Bt -Potato and Bt-Papaya as of now and would release it after the approval of the government.

Currently, the commercialisation of Bt-Brinjal is under examination by the government due to opposition from civil society groups on the fear of environmental impact.

“Biotechnology is the solution to feeding India’s population and it should be permitted after taking enough precautions,” he said.

Recently, IIHR has noted that the emergence of new diseases, biotypes, resistance to fungicides and their virulence are the major constraints in production of horticultural crop.

“Though area under horticultural crop stands at nine per cent of the total cultivable land , it contributes around 30 per cent of the total agricultural GDP. So, we have to increase both production and productivity to feed the rising population of the country,” Sidhu said.

On the export of horticultural crops, he said there should be an upside of around 10 per cent in the horticultural exports in this fiscal. India’s horticultural exports account for around 40 per cent of the total agricultural exports from the country.