Ready to Germinate
So Metahelix has the product and the distribution. Still, that may not be sufficient. When they do enter the market, gone will be the low-hanging fruit of converting non-Bt. farmers to Bt. ones. That battle is already over, for Monsanto won it. “The Indian cotton market is almost fully penetrated by Bt. cotton,” says Jagresh Rana, director at Mahyco Monsanto Biotech (MMB), the joint venture between Indian seed company Mahyco and Monsanto which licences the latter’s Bt. cotton in India. “The trend today is farmers shifting from the first to second generation Bt. technologies,” he says.
When that happens, says Nadig, “insect protection will become a given” and therefore cease to be a differentiator. The focus will move to other areas.
“Sometimes in the midst of all these technologies we forget that farmers don’t grow cotton to kill pests, but to get a better yield,” says Narayanan. If Metahelix can engineer a hybrid that can grow faster, utilise nutrient-s more effectively or produce a better yield, that might be its differentiator. This opinion is shared by Suman Sahai, convener of rural advocacy group Gene Campaign. “The success of Bt. cotton in India owes as much to the hybrids developed by Rasi and Nuziveedu, as to Monsanto’s technology. In fact, MMB’s initial seeds which were the first to get government approval were spectacular failures,” she says.
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Image: Gireesh GV for Forbes India
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BIOTECH TRIO: Gautham Nadig, KK Naryanan and Ravi Krishna of Metalhelix hope to engineer a cotton hybrid that can grow faster | |
Challenges Ahead
Dhaanya claims that both the cotton hybrids it has developed (5125 for rain-fed areas and 5174 for irrigated areas) have demonstrated better traits like cotton boll size, the length of the fibre (staple) and rejuvenation (ability to withstand longer periods without water) during field trials.
Therefore, when it goes to the market next year, its strategy will be two-pronged: Convince farmers using Bollgard-1 cotton (the first generation of Bt. seeds) to upgrade to Metahelix’s seed which offers added protection against pests, and demonstrate to Bollgard-2 (second generation Bt. seeds) farmers how their hybrid varieties offer better yields while offering the same level of pest protection.
In order to do this it is organising demonstrations of its cotton crops in over 250 locations around the country, where farmers will be allowed to examine Metahelix’s claims through live crops. It is also combining this with village-level meetings where company representatives will explain the benefits of their products over the competition.
“How successful we are in year 1 will depend on the trade channels and our village level demos,” says Ravi Krishna, head of Dhaanya. “But if the crop is successful, then from year 2 onwards each of our original customers will become a reference for added sales.”
Its first year crop will also demonstrate the pest resistance ability vis-à-vis Bollgard-1 and 2. And if it holds up, some seed companies may be tempted to jump ship from Monsanto to Metahelix as the source for the Bt. gene.
“Most seed companies are today aligned with Monsanto, which we may not be able to break immediately,” says Krishna. “Though a few have approached us to sub-licence our technology, we refused. We would prefer to show actual results before tying up with other seed companies.”
And while pest protection may soon become a given, pricing already has. For all practical purposes the price of Bt. cotton is fixed at Rs. 650 (for Bollgard-1) and Rs. 750 (for Bollgard-2) in various states, a matter that Monsanto is fighting in the courts.
This money is shared between Monsanto and the seed companies that licence its technology into their own hybrids. It is here that Metahelix may have an advantage as its cost of developing the Bt. cotton technology is only around a fourth of Monsanto’s. In the immediate term it means Dhaanya will have the freedom to sell at a lower price (though Metahelix says it has not evaluated that decision yet), but more importantly, in the longer term it means Metahelix might be able to offer a lower technology licence fee to other seed companies for its Bt. cotton.
In a volume-led market even a few hundred rupees per packet could alter the equation dramatically. But if Metahelix can convert a few leading seed companies to use its Bt. gene, it might be an added inflection point for the company.
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technology monopoly should have challengers in the interest of further technology development and end cousumers.....so far mahesh bhatt going anti bt ...i guess they are intelligent tribe and if some competent scientists with credibility provides them scientific facts they are open enough to modernise there views........i wish metahlix and dhanya all the best......Bhupen
