Bayer, Crystal Crop partner to find solution for brown plant hopper pest in paddy crop

Crystal Crop Protection Ltd on Thursday said it has partnered with Bayer CropScience to develop a solution for effective control of brown plant hopper and help farmers increase rice yields.

"Crystal Crop Protection embarked on a collaborative project with Bayer CropScience Ltd (Bayer) which will endeavour to enhance the productivity of rice by developing new crop protection solution for effective control of brown plant hopper," the company said in a statement.

India has 44 million hectares of area under rice. Brown plant hopper in rice impacts the crop productivity substantially and reduces the yield up to 20-30 per cent and sometimes the whole crop can be lost under high pest pressure.

Additionally, the company pointed out that the brown plant hopper develops fast resistance and therefore requires newer solutions to be developed every 2-3 years for sustainable production.

Under this collaboration, Bayer will provide Crystal access to newer compound, enabling the latter to bring new solution to the Indian market and which can be extended to other South Asian countries.

Bayer is a multi-national player in seeds and crop protection with over 50 years of history in India.

Crystal is an R&D based crop protection manufacturing and marketing company with experience in technical manufacturing, formulation and marketing of agrochemical products in India.

Crystal Crop Protection Ltd MD Ankur Aggarwal said: "We are proud to collaborate with Bayer. This is a valuable collaboration as it will provide safe and economical solutions for rice farmers."
Srinath Bala, Head of Marketing, Bayer Crop Science Ltd, South Asia, said: "Bayer strongly believes in the power of collaboration and trust. This collaboration is an affirmation of our commitment to work for our farmers and ensure faster and better solutions are made available to them."