Andhra gets multi-crop seed conditioner from Vibha

Mumbai/Hyderabad, Nov 28 : Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K Rosaiah, formally inaugurated the state-of-the-art multi-crop seed processing facility of Vibha Seeds located at Janampet in Mahabubnagar district of Andhra Pradesh.

Jairam Ramesh, Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests, N Raghuveera Reddy, Minister for Agriculture and Horticulture, Government of Andhra Pradesh were the distinguished guests on the occasion.

Vidyasagar Parchuri, Chairman and Managing Director of Vibha Seeds, said: " This new facility with a processing capacity of 1200 tonnes per day of field and vegetable crops is one of the world's largest plants - that includes an industrial scale biotech lab, a corn-cob drying facility, a cotton processing plant, a warehousing-packaging facility, cold storage facilities.

'The facility can roll out 100 trucks of processed seeds per day - of over 190 products in 12 field crops and 18 vegetable crops. To further ensure stringent adherence to quality, a seed quality assurance system is also in place with highly modern facilities.'

"For us, 'seed, soil and sustainability' in agriculture is the ultimate goal. We are committed to serve farmers by helping to improve their soil and crop yields sustainably through our supply chain," added Parchuri.

He further said the company has set for itself a mission to increase productivity by integrating new technological developments like biotechnology and genetic engineering with conventional breeding methods.

It has sound research collaborations with several national and international institutes such as International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center (AVRDC), Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo (CYMMIT), International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Kasetsart University (Thailand), North Carolina State University, Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics (ACPFG) and others.