by Joseph Vackayil
Financial Express via AgBios

Rasi Seeds Pvt Ltd, which has been approved by the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) to market its RCH 2 Bt cotton seeds, plans to sell about 3.5 lakh packets of 450 gm seeds in South, Central and Western zones of the country this season. In Tamil Nadu where planting is to start soon, the company would sell about 50,000 packets to over 30,000 farmers, M Ramasami, managing director of the company stated.

“Sales are in full swing with demand much more than our expectation. The acceptance by farmers for this product has indeed been very encouraging,” he indicated. The company was also organising the first-ever large-scale trial for RCH 134 Bt and RCH 137 Bt in Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, Mr Ramsami pointed out.

“We have a set programme to spread awareness on the advantages of Bt to the farmers. These include, spreading awareness about refugee crop resistance management. More than 100 field staff are also directly involved in extending service to farmers. In addition to this, mailers are planned to directly communicate with progressive farmers to guide them to take better yield,” he informed.

GEAC has permitted Rasi to conduct field trials of RCH 20, RCH 138 and RCH 144 Bt varieties. The company was asked to go in for one more year of large-scale trials for RCH 20 Bt in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu; RCH 138 Bt and RCH 144 Bt in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and in 80 locations for each hybrid.

Apart from this, Rasi has got approval to conduct trials of RCH 118 Bt and RCH 359 Bt in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh and RCH 368 Bt in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. It also sells seeds of Bhendi, Cluster Beans, Bitter Gaurd, Snake Gaurd, Tomato, Chilies and Brinjal.