Seminis flags off seeds lab in India

Seminis Inc. the world's largest developer, producer and marketer of vegetable seeds, has set up a research and development (R&D) farm near Aurangabad in Maharashtra.

Seminis would offer growers more than 4,000 distinct seed varieties representing nearly 60 species and owns or has pending more than 132 patents. It owns more than 380 varieties under plant variety protection laws.

Plants include beans, broccoli, cabbage, carrot, leek, cauliflower, celery, cucumber, eggplant, lettuce, melon, onion, pea, pepper, pumpkin, radish, spinach, squash, sweet corn, tomato and watermelon. The company has invested Rs 14 crore in the current year in India.

The Indian subsidiary became fully operational in 2000 and achieved sales of Rs 54 crore in the October 2002 "� September 2003 period. The company has used seeds to deliver innovative farming technology.

The seeds were designed to reduce use of agricultural chemicals, increase crop yield, reduce spoilage, offer longer shelf life and create better tasting foods and foods with better nutritional content. Seminis operates in 150 countries dealing in vegetable seeds.

The seeds sector in the country, in the process of consolidation, will be driven by a critical mass in research and development, protection of intellectual property, management of inventory system and distribution strength, says a report released by Rabobank International.

The ability to invest significant resources long term in research and development would be critical.

However, as the gestation period was long, requiring huge funds, private seed companies tend to borrow technology through alliances or restrict themselves to marketing seeds.

"The strategic motivation for many tie-ups with multinationals by Indian organisations is to be able to draw on Western experience with highly developed technological products," the report said.

Rabobank believes that technology will provide long-term sustainable advantage to seed companies. Globally seed companies spend as much as 12 per cent of their sales on research and development.

"It gives me immense satisfaction while I dedicate the Seminis R&D farm," said Alfonso Romo, chairman and chief executive officer of Seminis Inc.

Speaking at the dedication ceremony, Romo said, "India has enormous potential for the growth of agriculture," he added.

Dr. Ed Green, global head of Seminis R&D, Dieter Holtz, vice-president of Seminis Austral Asia, Bruno Ferrari, senior vice-president, commercial, and Dr. Chandra Pathak, chief of R&D Seminis South-East Asia, were present at the function.