Monsanto India on Monday inaugurated a state-of-the-art ‘breeding station’ for developing and testing new varieties of hybrid corn and vegetable seeds in Kallinayakanahalli in Chikkaballapur district, Karnataka.
The station, which will be Monsanto’s second set-up in the country, will primarily focus on developing high-yielding hybrid seeds for corn, tomato, cabbage, cauliflower, cucumber, and watermelon cultivation — mainly for farmers in southern India.
The `25 crore set-up is built along the lines of Monsanto research facility in St Louis, US, and sports an integrated lab-to-land facility that includes open fields for trials, greenhouses and more.
“Bangalore is ideal in terms of logistics and climatic conditions for research. This non-biotech plant-breeding station is yet another indication of Monsanto’s commitment to helping our farmers through the use of technical innovation to grow more with less land, water and other resources. This will help meet the needs of a growing population, and to make India globally competitive in agriculture,” said D Narain, region lead for Monsanto India.
“Our researchers endeavour to bring farmers the bestproducts for their fields and help improve on-farm productivity. When compared with conventional breeding, our breeding programme is doubling the rate of improvement in key genetic characteristics such as yield and important agronomic traits, which can help make agriculture more sustainable,” said Amitabh Jaipuria, managing director, Monsanto India.
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