DuPont adds seed research centres

These places include corn research facilities in Udaipur and Vijayawada, and a facility in Beijing, as well as a multi-crop centre in Ukraine for corn, canola and sunflower research. Research operations are also being expanded with cotton joining pearl millet and rice as crops with research programmes in Hyderabad, a company press release said.

Mr William S. Niebur, Vice-President for Crop Genetics Research and Development, said, “The addition of these centres allows us to strengthen our research capabilities, bringing better genetics and traits that meet specific growing challenges in these areas to our customers faster.”

Last year, DuPont had opened a corn research centre in Bangalore to help farmers increase productivity to meet growing demand for grain.

With the recent addition of two more corn research centres, DuPont will have three corn research facilities in India where DuPont business Pioneer will develop high-yielding hybrids adapted to the unique growing conditions in the area.

“Pioneer is investing in India to increase the profitability of farmers,” Mr K.V. Subbarao, Country Manager for Pioneer India, said.

“It is building on Pioneer India’s more than 30 years of understanding of local farmer needs. The need for local environment-specific product is increasing, and farmers’ demand for newer products is also increasing,” he told Business Line.

Pioneer has been selling hybrid seed in India and is a leading supplier of improved seed genetics. It has more than 1.5 million customers in India.