Mahyco seals joint venture with US’ RiceTec for HT rice and wheat

By Sanjeeb Mukherjee

Seeds major Mahyco has formed a 50:50 joint venture with US-based seeds company ‘Ricetec’ called ‘Paryan’ to introduce environment-friendly non-GMO herbicide tolerant (HT) rice and wheat varieties for Indian farmers.

The JV — which is one among the many that Mahyco has entered with a global seeds company after the highly successful one with Monsanto — will be for licensing of HT traits and HT traited hybrids and varieties across rice and wheat to seed companies, each of whom will introduce these technologies into their varieties of seeds.

The rice and wheat hybrids and varieties from these technologies are resistant to the commonly used broad-spectrum herbicide called ‘imazethapyr’. 

The promoters claimed that farmers can freely use the herbicide ‘imazethapyr’ without the fear of plants turning yellow which makes them ideal for direct seeding without the fear of weeds. While the wheat varieties are suitable for zero-tillage cultivation.

In the case of HT rice, the technology that the JV will commercialise is called ‘FullPage’ which is a new generation double stack mutant herbicide-tolerant rice technology.

And, in the case of wheat, the technology is called the ‘FreeHit’system which is also a unique double-stacked herbicide tolerant mutant in specially bred wheat varieties and specially formulated herbicide that will help farmers control weeds and increase yields.

Explaining benefits of the technology, Shirish Barwale, Managing Director of Mahyco said that field studies show that the cost of seven kilograms of the hybrid rice seeds through this technology plus the herbicide ‘imazethapyr’ will be around Rs 5150 per acre, while six kilograms of any other rice seed along with a complex mix of herbicides will cost anywhere around Rs 4000 per acre.

“But, this extra cost in using the old conventional seeds does not include tractor rentals, cost of puddling and labor for transplanting of rice which varies between Rs 6500-7000 per acres depending upon the area in which the rice is being grown,” Barwale said.

Also, savings will happen due to less irrigation in DSR rice.

So while transplanted rice through the conventional puddling method needs around 15 irrigations, DSR rice would need around 10 irrigations.

“Due to cut down in methane gas emissions on use of DSR rice farmers can earn up to two carbon credits for rice which can then be monetised as well for extra earnings for the growers,” Ajai Rana, Asia Pacific, Business Head of RiceTec’s business in India (operating under the name of Savannah Seeds) said.

In India, rice is grown in around 44 million hectares of land per year while wheat is grown in around 30 million hectares. Of this, hybrids in rice are just around 9 per cent area while in wheat it is even less. Rice is grown through the DSR method in just around 0.5-0.6 million hectares annually.

Rana said their field studies have shown that per-hectare yields in DSR rice using their seeds and rice grown through conventional methods are almost the same.

This article has been republished from The Business Standard.