Rank 4

Nuziveedu Seeds

Baling out success

Nuziveedu has emerged as the largest seller of Bt cotton seeds in India.

Nuziveedu Seeds Ltd (NSL) is one of the leading hybrid seed companies in India. It was established over 30 years ago by M Venkata Ramaiah, a post graduate in agricultural sciences and based on the strengths in research, production and distribution, which were strengthened by the leadership of M Prabhakar Rao, who took over the management in 1983, the company has been able to become a leading seed company in India. The company's hybrid seeds are produced in collaboration with about 42,000 seed producing farmers and are used by 50 lakh farmers across the country. The cotton seeds supplied by the company are planted in 35-40 percent of the cotton area in the country and contribute in producing 40-45 percent best quality cotton in India. The company's R&D wing has evolved excellent hybrids in cotton, 'Bunny' and 'Mallika', which produce very high quality cotton fiber besides giving high yield to farmers. It has also evolved several excellent hybrids and improved plant types in rice, maize, bajra and jowar.

The company has also invested in renewable power generation, textiles, cotton procurement and trading, sugar, power and IT infrastructure businesses.

NSL established all the required research farms, seed conditioning (processing) facilities as well as conditioned storage godowns for seeds around Hyderabad and several other strategic locations across the country. The company has got presence in about 15 major agricultural states with offices at Hyderabad, Delhi, Guntur, Ahmedabad, Akola, Indore, Davangere, Bangalore, Chennai, Lucknow, Jaipur and Patna. The company has also developed excellent systems of production, quality assurance and distribution, because of which it is able to maintain its leadership position in the country.

NSL after having established itself as the top player in cotton is now working on increasing its market share in rice, maize, jowar, bajra, sunflower, chillies, soybean, wheat and various vegetable crops. At present NSL is using the GM traits for imparting "insect resistance in cotton" and selling the largest quantity of Bt cotton seeds in India. NSL Cotton Corporation (NCC) is a limited company and is part of Nuziveedu Seeds group, carrying out activities related to the business of managing cotton cultivation, procurement, processing and marketing as branded cotton. NSL with a visionary approach of linking cotton seed to garments, has conceived the company as forward integration to the NSL hybrid cotton seeds division which holds a 40 percent share in the Indian market for the hybrid cotton seed and backward integration to the textiles division.

Also, to incorporate an inclusive growth for the company, NCC has brought in reputed NSL cottonseed distributors in different locations of Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh as equity partners in this venture. The partners have vast experience in networking with the cotton farming community in their respective regions, thus ensuring availability of seedcottons (Kapas) continuously for the ginning plants being set up in their locations. Thus this plan envisages an integrated approach to cotton farming and ginning which would promote a successful business venture to the farmers, partners and NCC.

The business model is designed on a franchisee platform, wherin NCC will be the major financial partner and the franchisee will manage contract farming, seedcotton procurement and processing operations under supervision of NCC.

NSL also is developing GM traits on its own and through contract research for cotton and other crops.

NSL through its qualified and trained personnel helps the farmers in increasing the productivity so as to make the farmers to reap the benefits from the superior genetics supplied to them through its seeds. The strong accent on research has been reflected in the establishment of well equipped R&D facility at Kompally and research farms in Hyderabad, Gurazala, Gurgoan, Nizamabad, Guntur and Nuziveedu, which facilitate evaluation of newly developed hybrids/varieties under a wide range of environments.

NSL has research collaborations with a number of reputed national and international research institutions like ICRISAT (seed parent development in Sorghum and Bajra), Plant Research International, Netherlands (functional genomics in cotton), Metahelix Life Sciences (gene development for cotton insect resistance), NDSU, USA (seed parent development in Sunflower), AVRDC, Taiwan (seed parent development in tomato and chillies), IRRI, Philippines (hybrid rice development), ICAR (co-ordinated trials), IARI, CICR, DMR, DRR, DOR, NRC on Sorghum , NBPGR and several state agricultural universities.

The company has research farms spread all over India in 500 acres. They are150 acres in and around Hyderabad, 50 acres in Guntur and Nuziveedu, 130 acres in Nizamabad, 114 acres in Gurjala and 20 acres at Gurgoan.

Realising the potential of transgenic crops, NSL has acquired Bt gene (Cry 1 Ac) and transferred into superior genetic backgrounds of Bunny and Mallika cotton hybrids. Four years of rigorous research work and testing under RCGM (DBT), large scale trials (GEAC) and co-ordinated trials (ICAR) proved that Bunny Bt and Mallika Bt are superior in yield, quality with resistance to bollworms.

At present, the company has sourced the technology from MMB to give superior bollworm resistant cotton hybrids as early as possible to the farmers. NSL is also working to develop its own indigenous transgenic for imparting resistance to bollworms at its well established biotechnology laboratory and also in collaboration with NBRI, Lucknow and a reputed agribiotech company.