Monsanto India Limited (MIL) has registered a growth of 14% in the corn business during the financial year 2007-08 by introducing new seed hybrid varieties. MIL’s high-yielding corn hybrid seeds brand – Dekalb, is the market leader, with a market share of about 39% in the hybrid seeds segment.

“The fiscal year 2007-08 saw another strong performance with continued market leadership in our two core businesses of corn hybrid seeds and ‘Roundup’ herbicide. This was delivered through execution of our core strategy – superior value creation for our farmer customers; market expansion and market share expansion; restructuring our business portfolio; and enhanced operational efficiencies,” Amitabh Jaipuria, managing director, MIL said.

During the fiscal 2007-08, new elite hybrids include Dekalb Pinnacle, Dekalb 9081, and Dekalb 900M Gold. The company’s seed operations have continued to generate overall volume and margin growth during the year through a combination of high quality product offerings and better mix.

“In 2007-08, our corn business grew by approximately 14%, thus contributing our bit to the fast growth in corn production in India, which has hit 18.54 million metric tonne,” Jaipuria said.

MIL has three corn seed processing plants at Bellary in Karnataka, Elluru and Shamirpet in Andhra Pradesh, and a herbicide formulation unit at Silvassa.

Corn is used in poultry feed (48%), brewery (1%), human consumption (29%), starch (11%) and animal feed (11%).

In India, states such as Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh have high corn acreages, but have low levels of hybridisation; while Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu enjoy high yields due to high hybridisation. With about 50% of the total corn acreage in the country being non-hybridised, there is an opportunity to increase productivity through superior Dekalb corn hybrids, according to company’s annual report 2007-08.

While the current US corn productivity stands at 3.78 tonne per acre, Brazil’s corn productivity is 1.45 tonne per acre, and India’s is 0.8 tonne per acre.