Monsanto opens breeding station for testing new varieties

Monsanto India, a subsidiary of the US-based Monsanto Company, a provider of technology-based solutions and agricultural products, on Tuesday opened its new breeding station for developing and testing new varieties of hybrid corn and vegetable seeds in Karnataka.

The company has invested Rs 25 crore on the new facility. The station is spread acr-

oss 117 acres at Kallinayakanahalli in Chikkaballapur district, 55 km from Bangalore.

The breeding station will focus on developing high-yielding hybrid seeds for corn, tomato, cabbage, cauliflower, cucumber and watermelon cultivation mainly for farmers in southern India. This integrated lab-to-land facility will be a ‘Centre of Excellence’ for research into hybrid seeds and is modeled on the main Monsanto research facility in Chesterfield Village, St. Louis, USA, the company said in a statement.

 

This breeding station is also Monsanto’s second such facility in India that has all the R&D infrastructure in the same location like labs, open fields for trials, greenhouses, among others. The integration of these facilities both in the laboratory and in the field will enable an environment of seamless research that will make discovery faster and reduce the lead time for launch of new and better seeds into the market, the company said.

“Bangalore is ideal in terms of logistics and climatic conditions for research into various hybrid varieties. This non-biotech plant breeding station is yet another indication of Monsanto’s commitment to helping our farmers through the use of technical innovation to grow more with less land, water and other resources to meet the needs of a growing population, and to make India globally competitive in agriculture,” D Narain, region lead for Monsanto India said.