Monsanto looks for partnerships with states to reach out to farmers

Monsanto Holdings, a leading global provider of technology-based agricultural products aimed to improve farm productivity and food quality, is scouting for partnerships with state governments to reach target groups of farmers.

The company has signed public-private partnership agreements with the governments of Karnataka, Gujarat and Rajasthan for distributing seeds of cotton and maize to farmers. Talking to Business Standard, Christopher Samuel, the company’s director, public affairs, said India had large tracts of fields under cultivation. To raise the yield, better quality seeds should be complemented with technology and good agronomic practices. He said their collaboration with state governments would enable farmers to use high-yielding seeds with state-of-the-art agronomic practices.

 

He added that Monsanto created direct linkages with 100,000 farmers across India with a team of 450 agriculture scientists. The company currently has six-seven per cent of the market for hybrid seeds in India and plans to be among the top five in the market.

More than marketing, he said, the research and development of better-quality seeds conducive to the soil and climatic conditions were required to consolidate its position. Monsanto has earmarked an annual fund of Rs 5,000 crore for biotech research for its global operations and each market draws 10 per cent of the total sales from this fund.

The company has five seed research breeding facilities in India. Samuel said the advantage of being a global operator was access to quality seeds in various parts of the world. “We can extract the best qualities of seeds from different countries and develop the one most suitable for Indian conditions to raise the yields of different crops,” he said.

Since so much of agriculture in India is rain-fed, seeds with less water absorption might help, he noted.