Despite the ministry of environment and forest putting moratorium on the commercial cultivation of BT brinjal, Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company Limited (Mahyco), is undertaking research work on developing new varieties such as BT okra and BT rice. Usha Barwale Zehr, chief technology officer of Mahyco spoke to FE’s Sandip Das on the company’s future plans.

What have been key areas of strength or success for Mahyco?

Our goal has been to innovate and produce products, which improve the livelihood of the farming community by enhancing productivity via planting good quality seed. We have entered into numerous partnerships with public institutions and private companies to bring the best technologies to the Indian farmer. Some examples are hybrid cotton, pearl millet, sorghum, hybrid wheat, sunflower, mustard and many other crops including vegetables. Recently, we have introduced the first transgenic product in the form of BT cotton and the subsequent second generation cotton products.

Explain the varieties of hybrid seed developed by Mahyco?

We have introduced more than 200 products in the crop market, such as the large acreage crops like wheat, rice, cotton, sorghum, pearl millet, mustard and many vegetables such as chilli, okra, brinjal, tomato, cauliflower, bottle gourd, bitter gourd to name some. New products are introduced regularly to provide additional value to the farmers. Mahyco has continued to work on developing better genetics, which give higher production to the farmers, starting with high yielding varieties, going to hybrids in most crops and now also developing and marketing transgenic products.

With use of hybrids, farmers will see a minimum productivity improvement of 20% going up to 100% in some areas. The number of farmers growing BT cotton hybrids in India has increasedto over 5.6 million in 2009, making it a record adoption of technology by small farmers.

What are the key focus areas for R&D for the company during next one decade?

Mahyco?s focus is to develop crops with improved tolerance insect, pests, diseases, and drought, fertiliser use, salinity and extreme temperatures. Boosting yields in cereals, vegetables and oilseed crops is crucial. Building on the example of BT cotton, we continue to work to provide the best combinations of technologies using conventional genetics, molecular breeding and also transgenic technologies. Improvement of protein quality, fortification of vitamins and micronutrients are some of the areas which hold tremendous potential.

What are the GM crops at the research lab?

Mahyco has developed BT brinjal and is awaiting the approval for its commercial release. In addition, we are developing BT okra and BT rice for tolerance to key insect pests in these crops. These crops have completed three seasons of multi-location field trials and we are currently preparing the bio safety dossier on the crops.

We are evaluating genes that can combat sucking pest feeding damage in cotton and okra caused by whiteflies, aphids and jassids among others. Another possible benefit of this technology would be to reduce plant-to-plant virus transmission by some of these insect species which act as carriers. In rice, the company is evaluating the technology for efficacy against plant hoppers which cause significant economic damage annually.

Mahyco also has rice and wheat with herbicide tolerance, drought tolerance, salt tolerance, which are ready to go to field testing this year.