Agronomic Innovations – Assuring the well-being of rural India

 Global agricultural production needs to increase substantially in order to assuage the hunger, cope up with national food insecurities, and meet the needs of a world population projected to exceed 9 billion in 2050. It is estimated that the major share of this increase will come from developing countries. An expected 50% growth in world population during the 21st century, demands new and innovative integration of advanced technologies and low input production systems based on soil and plant biology. Through the development of superior plant varieties that benefit from high agrochemical inputs and irrigation, the agricultural green revolution will be able to achieve doubled crop yields.
After conducting extensive research in crop improvement and innovative breeding techniques, NSPL has developed path-breaking concepts to increase farm yields. Nuziveedu Seeds Pvt. Ltd is recognized as India’s largest seed company and its intensive ongoing research has brought revolutionary results in the fields of agricultural research, production, distribution and extension activities related to Hybrid/HYV seeds of Cotton, Corn, Rice and several other important field crops in addition to vegetable crops.
Public Private Partnerships for greater productivity: The company has formed Public Private Partnerships in the area of Research and development, which is an ongoing process and has successfully participated in PPP mode in the areas of Seed Distribution and agricultural extension. Entering into PPP with public funded research institutes like ICRISAT, NRCPB (ICAR), NBRI, ICGEB, IIT Kharagpur in the area of biotechnology it has achieved remarkable progress in jointly developing commercially viable traits which can deal with the biotic and abiotic stresses in agricultural crops.
Meeting the challenge of increasing agricultural production the company has acquired seed production and marketing rights of public bred hybrids from the State Agricultural Universities like Dr. Balasaheb Sawant Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth (Maharashtra), Narendra Dev University of Agriculture and Technology (UP) and CCS Haryana Agricultural University. Moreover, the company has an exclusive tie up with KRIBHCO, India’s second largest fertilizer Co-operative for Seed Distribution throughout the country.
Agronomic Innovations to Revitalize Rural India: Contributing significantly towards the well being of rural India, NSPL has developed and introduced two agronomic innovations, through their in-house Research and Development in agronomy. These innovations are aimed at increasing the agricultural output and rural income levels. The innovations comprise (1) Optimizing the seed rate in research paddy cultivation and (2) High Density Cotton Planting.
Optimizing the seed rate in research paddy cultivation: NSPL has virtually changed the concept of growing varietal paddy through the remarkable results of its research. Traditionally varietal paddy was grown using 30-32 kg of seed per acre. Experimenting with a lesser seed rate per acre, after several large scale in house trials and university guidance, NSPL developed the concept of 10kg seed per acre as the optimum seed rate for improving yield. This innovation is being used with success in Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Orissa, Karnataka & Andhra Pradesh and reaping rich results.
High Density Cotton Planting: Nuziveedu Seeds Private Limited is one of the first seed companies to realize the opportunity of increasing the cotton yields by increasing the plant density to about 10,000 to 15000 per acre from the current population of 4500-6500 plants per acre. This could be achieved by reducing the spacing between rows and within the rows. The concept has been tested both in company’s R&D and at the State Agricultural Universities in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. The results confirmed that the yield increase could be between 30 to 50%. The vision is to make India the largest producer of cotton from its current number 2 position in the next 5-6 years. High Density Cotton Planting is more appropriate to rain-fed cultivation and it is a fact that more than 85% of the cotton in India is cultivated under rain-fed conditions.
These innovations have been taken to the farmers through extensive use of the company’s field force. The communication and training was done through hoardings, demonstration and distribution of product literature. It is estimated that 25-30% farmers are now adopting these practices and harvesting the benefits.

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