Syngenta aims for horticultural project rollout in India

While India already has year-round watermelon production across 450,000 acres, strong demand has prompted Syngenta to conduct pilot projects in the country to promote the cultivation of seedless varieties, along with different agronomic practices for other crops such as grapes and potatoes. After successful signs from an initiative in the state of Maharashtra, tests have expanded to other areas like Hyderabad and Bangalore.

Syngenta South Asia’s head of crop marketing-veg, Prashant Belgamwar, labels Maharashtra growers as “very progressive” for their use of high-end technologies like drip irrigation and mulching, which in addition to growing with ideal climatic and soil conditions, made them good candidates for testing seedless watermelons.

Pre-launch surveys showed consumers in the state’s two largest cities, Mumbai and Pune, accepted the novel concept and were willing to pay a premium price for this variety.

The company does not have a patent on seedless watermelons in India, but it does hold patented cultivation and production methods for them. As an example of the fruit’s potential, Belgamwar mentions that seedless varieties were introduced in the U.S. in the 1980s, and now they constitute 85% of the North American country’s watermelon production.

“Syngenta’s seedless watermelons are very popular in North America where the market has quickly shifted from Seeded to Seedless, driven by consumer convenience and technological innovations,” he says. “In other regions like China and Vietnam, the popularity of seedless watermelon is growing.”

Other projects in India

Belgamwar highlights the company also provides what it calls a “Maxveg” solution, which is an integrated solution from nursery to final harvest to raise comercial yields.

“Syngenta has just unveiled its MaxVeg solution for cauliflower, hot pepper and tomato in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka, and we will soon extend this to watermelon in Maharashtra,” he says.

In addition to its watermelon and MaxVeg efforts, another strong focus has been on table grapes, which are one of India’s top horticultural export crops.

As the second-largest potato grower in the world, India has extensive opportunities for development of the prolific tuber, which prompted Syngenta to collaborate with the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), which Belgamwar claims has “in increased productivity, positive impact on growers, and established right agronomic practices during vegetative, reproductive and harvesting stages”.

Protecting intellectual property

Belgamwar says that while India is not a signatory to the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV), it signed on to the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) after joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995.

“Under TRIPS the Sui generis system was adopted in harmonization with UPOV system of Novelty, Distinctness, Uniformity, Stability and Farmers’ Rights were envisaged,” he says.

“The Act covers all the categories of plants, except micro-organisms. So, in India we do protection of plant varieties through these methods.”