DuPont Crop Protection Established Alliance with Asia's Largest Cooperative

DuPont Crop Protection (DCP) in India recently signed a memorandum of understanding for a distribution alliance with the Punjab State Cooperative Supply and Marketing Federation Limited (Markfed), a federation of more than 3,000 societies in Punjab State.

Markfed represents the interests of more than a million farmers in the state and distributes close to one million metric tons of farm input annually. With this alliance, DCP products will be sold through the distribution network of Asia’s largest marketing cooperative.

"The alliance with Markfed is one more step in our commitment to finding new ways to collaborate with local partners to address the challenge of food productivity. It also fits well with our strategy to rapidly expand our reach in India and will allow DuPont access to one of India’s largest crop protection markets," said Balvinder Kalsi, former president for DuPont South Asia.

The memorandum will significantly impact the state’s farmers as productivity has remained stagnant due to dwindling water and soil resources noted in the Indian Economic Survey 2009-10.

"Reaching the farming community through this agency with more than 3,000 cooperatives will be easier now,” said Ram K. Mudholkar, director for DCP South Asia and ASEAN. "We see a huge potential for growth and aim to facilitate this growth with quality products."

Indian agriculture is faced with the daunting task of feeding and clothing 16% of the world’s population on less than 2% of the total land mass. With 190 million hectares of gross cultivated area, the scope for bringing new areas under cultivation is limited. The farmers of Punjab now are empowered with products and technology to help them achieve better quality farm produce.