Monsanto to introduce 20 new hybrid cotton seeds

Monsanto India Ltd, the leading provider of agricultural products and solutions, is planning to roll out 20 new hybrids of BT cotton seeds. The company has presently 20 hybrids of such seeds in the country.

"We are confident of achieving our target shortly," said Felipe Osorio, managing director, Monsanto India. Monsanto is also expanding its corn business by setting up a new plant near Hyderabad.

The plant would start production in 12-18 months. "We supply corn seeds not only to the Indian market but also to the Asia Pacific markets," said Felipe.

"There should not be any political intervention as the large chunk of GDP depends on it. Secondly, about 70 per cent of the population depends on farming and most of them want multiplied output," Felipe added.

Speaking about misconceptions over using BT cotton, Felipe said that the success and failure of a farmer depends on a lot of other factors like proper use of pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, irrigation and nature of seeds. Use of spurious materials also contributes in the success of output.

On subsidies, Felipe said that such offers make farmers uncompetitive. Hence, subsidies should be waived immediately and funds should be allocated for infrastructure, proper warehousing system, good irrigation mechanism etc.

Cotton provides livelihood to over 60 million people in the country and contributes to about 29.8 per cent of Indian agriculture gross domestic product.

India has the world's largest acreage of cotton, which is planted across approximately 22.5 million acres.