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Price war in cotton seeds sector

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Meghdoot Sharon Gandhinagar
Last Updated : Feb 06 2013 | 7:21 PM IST
A large number of farmers have adopted the Bt Cotton variety of seeds as they were effective against bollworm disease. This has hammered sales of Gujarat Seeds Corporation Ltd (GSCL) products, forcing it to slash prices of its hybrid 6, 8 and 10 varieties of cotton seeds.
 
Sales of Bt cotton seeds have led to fall in sales of the Shankar brand of cotton seeds made by GSCL by around 40 per cent last year. Bt cotton seeds are priced much higher than Shankar seeds. GSCL is the largest seller of these seeds in the state.
 
Bt Cotton seeds have been sold since the 2002 season by Mayco-Monsanto. The three varieties of seeds sold were called Bt 12, Bt 162 and Bt 184. They have been priced at Rs 1,600 for a packet of 450 grams.
 
This season, Rasi Seeds has been granted permission to sell Bt Cotton seeds in Gujarat as well.
 
A G Dixit, director of agriculture, Gujarat, said one lakh packets of Mayco-Mossanto Bt cotton seeds and another one lakh packets of Rasi Bt Cotton seeds were expected to be be sold during the kharif season. Some farmers were expected to switch to Bt cotton seeds from Shanker hybrid seeds.
 
The Shanker 6 seed, which was priced at Rs 235 for a packet of 450 grams, will now cost Rs 155. The price of Shanker 8 brand has been slashed from Rs 350 last year to Rs 205 this year. The Shanker 10 brand which cost Rs 200 earlier will now cost Rs 165.
 
"We have adequate stocks of seeds with us and it is true that sales of Shanker brand have gone down after Bt Cotton seeds began to be sold. We have thus slashed prices to make cotton seeds available at cheap prices," said S R Chaudhary, managing director of Gujarat Seeds Corporation Limited.
 
Lower prices were expected to lead to higher sales. "The advantage of Bt Cotton seeds is that they are effective against bollworm, the biggest cause of low productivity of cotton. Farmers are willing to pay more for Bt Cotton seeds because profit margins are higher. Sales of hybrid 6, 8 and 10 varieties has come down by 40 per cent over the past one year," Dixit added.
 
Last year, cotton was sown over 16 lakh hectares of land in Gujarat after the state experienced good rains. Agriculture department officials said they expected another good monsoon in 2004. This would raise the area under cotton by 50,000 more hectares.
 
"We expect cotton to be sown over 16.5 lakh hectares this year if there is a good monsoon," Dixit said.

 
 

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First Published: May 27 2004 | 12:00 AM IST

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