Crystal Crop Protection Limited and Bayer CropScience Limited join hands to bring new crop protection solutions for Rice farmers

Mumbai, September 20, 2018:

India has 44 mha of Rice which contribute approximately 30% to Agriculture GDP impacting livelihood of millions of farmers. Brown Plant Hopper in Rice impacts the crop productivity substantially and reduces the yield up to 20-30% and sometimes the whole crop can be lost under high pest pressure. Additionally Brown Plant Hopper develops fast resistance and therefore requires newer solutions to be developed every 2-3 years for sustainable production.

Crystal Crop Protection Limited (Crystal) embarked on a collaborative project with Bayer CropScience Limited (Bayer) which will endeavor to enhance the productivity of Rice by developing new crop protection solution for effective control of Brown Plant Hopper.

Crop dynamics and farmer needs in India is very different than those of large scale agriculture dynamics of Western Countries. The difference is mainly on account of tropical climate with high pest pressure which requires safe, effective and cost-efficient solutions to meet the needs of sustainable crop production. One of the ways to serve these unique needs of Rice farmers is to develop customized products through proximity innovation.

Bayer is a multi-national renowned player in Seeds and Crop protection with over 50 years of history in India and has a strong track record of innovations which have helped the farmers to increase the crop productivity across crops.

Crystal is an R&D based crop protection manufacturing and marketing company with experience in technical manufacturing, formulation and marketing of agrochemical products in India.

Under this collaboration, Bayer will provide Crystal access to newer compound, enabling Crystal, based on their manufacturing and development strength, to bring new proximity solution to the Indian market and which can be extended to other South Asian countries. This is a unique model to foster proximity innovation which is tailor-made for the specific needs of the Indian farmer.

On the signing of the agreement, Mr. Ankur Aggarwal, Managing Director, Crystal Crop Protection Limited said: “We are proud to collaborate with Bayer. This is a valuable collaboration as it will provide safe and economical solutions for rice farmers.”

Srinath Bala, Head of Marketing, Bayer Crop Science Limited, South Asia, said: “Bayer strongly believes in the power of collaboration and trust. This collaboration is an affirmation of our commitment to work for our farmers and ensure faster and better solutions are made available to them.”