11 seed players differ with industry view on cotton price cap

Differing with seed industry's view on fixing a maximum price for cotton seeds, 11 companies, including Monsanto, DuPontPioneer and Syngenta, have said the government should also pay heed to the views of large players which have invested significantly in intellectual properties.
The companies have urged the government not to go by the representations being made by the seed industry body National Seed Association of India (NSAI) alone while taking a decision, and said that it would restrict creation of intellectual property in industry.
The Agriculture Ministry on December 7 issued Cotton Seeds Price (Control) Order to fix a uniform maximum retail price (MRP) on all cotton seeds, including the genetically modified versions, from March.

It also decided to fix and regulate the seed value and licensee fee, including royalty or trait value.
The government is likely to take a call this month on fixing the maximum prices for the cotton seed.
"We request the Government...To take into account the views of various responsible and large members of the seed industry like us who have invested in long-term IP creation in several crops that will benefit the Indian farmer with better quality varieties," the companies said in a letter to the Agriculture Ministry.

"We want to put on record that the above mentioned statements of NSAI do not represent the views of a large majority of seed companies and members of NSAI like us," the companies added.

BASF, Bayer, Bioseed, Dow, Mahyco, Metahelix, Namdhari, and Rasi Seeds are among the 11 companies which have differed from NSAI's views.
The Centre's order to contorl the cotton seed price had came at a time when there was a tussle between the Mahyco- Monsanto Biotech (India) Pvt Ltd (MMBL) and seed companies over payment of royalty for using Bollgard technology in hybrid cotton seeds.
MMBL on December 19 had filed a writ petition in the Delhi High Court challenging certain provisions of the order that seeks to regulate licensing of cotton seed technology.
Bt cotton is the only GM crop allowed for commercial cultivation in the country. Over the last decade, Bt cotton technology has been adopted over 95 per cent of the cotton growing area, making India its second largest producer.