What started as a hobby, turned into a successful business. In 1973, a post graduate in agricultural sciences and an enterprising farmer Mandava Venkatramaiah set up a seed business. His son Prabhakara Rao, a post graduate and Gold Medalist in agriculture science took charge of his father’s seed business and transformed the company as a leader into the Indian seed industry.

Today, the Hyderabad based Nuziveedu Seeds is one of the leading agro-biotech companies in India and ranks No.1 in the commercial agricultural seeds market in India.

Nuziveedu Seeds Ltd is the largest hybrid seed company in India which develops, produces, and markets hybrid and varietal seed products and is the first private company to cross Rs.1000 cr. mark in sales.

The major success of the company is due to its focus on biotechnology to enhance the quality of seeds, Nuziveedu has its state-of-the art biotechnology laboratory with well equipped green house facilities, and a state-of-the-art bio-technology laboratory and germplasm banks and is recognized as an ICAR testing centre for cotton, maize, pearl Millet, sunflower and rice.

The R&D division has to its credit of discovering many world class hybrid seeds in cotton and has around 160 hybrids in its kitty which is far ahead of other players.

Other factor that helped the expansion of the company was the acquisition of three local based (Hyderabad) companies-Yaaganti Seeds, Pravardhan Seeds and Prabhat Agri Biotech. The acquisition of Yaaganti and Pravardhan, both core companies in crops, helped Nuziveedu to diversify besides cotton.

Besides these, Nuziveedu is also into vegetable seeds that are already showing a growth rate of more than 30%.

Nuziveedu has not restricted its activities within India. It has ventured into overseas market two years back - exporting crops and vegetable seeds to Bangladesh, Pakistan, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Kenya and Tanzania.

M. Prabhakara Rao, CMD, Nuziveedu Seeds Ltd

The driving force behind this fast moving front runner is the strong business acumen of the CMD, M.Prabhakara Rao, his foreseeing abilities of the growing market and the hardcore professionalism he is adopting in running his company.

Deservingly, Nuziveedu Seeds has got many recognitions and awards – DSIR Award for outstanding R&D achievements, Agriculture Leadership Award in 2009, the Bio Spectrum Awards thrice (2008, 2010 and 2011), High - Socio Economic Impact Award by FICCI in 2011, Public Private Partnership Award this year and the Agriculture Leadership Award for the second time this year.

Interview with Ramesh Viswananthan, COO, on Current Activies of Nuziveedu Seeds

A sales and Brand management professional having associated with Lakme, Elle 189, Kingfisher, Chik shampoo, Spinz and Adidas personel care products, Ramesh Viswanathan is the COO of Nuziveedu Seeds Ltd, a market leader in hybrid cotton seed and research paddy seed.

In an exclusive interview given to Sankar Iyer of LifeScienceWorld, Ramesh Viswananthan, speaks,on some of the current activities of Nuziveedu seeds

LSW: Nuziveedu is India’s first seed company having plants in 16 locations. A few words on the current status.

Nuziveedu Seeds is India’s largest seed company and has a spread across the country. In cotton, which is its lead crop ( and is also the largest crop by value for the industry ) Nuziveedu Seeds today is the leader in the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh in addition to Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Besides Cotton, Nuziveeedu has a strong presence with Corn, Hybrid Rice and Varietal Rice in the states of UP, Bihar, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand which are not cotton markets. LSW: The very mention of the word Bt cotton earlier was debatable and controversial, which still is, to some extent. But Nuziveedu’s growth is incredible. You have nearly 40% market share. Your comment:

Yes, Nuziveedu has a strong presence in the Cotton market in India. We have a pan Indian presence with a wide assortment of brands suitable for different agro climatic conditions. As indicated we have leadership in most cotton growing states in India. The attempt is to continue to grow our business at a rate faster than the market by understanding changing customer needs and fulfilling them with superior products thereby providing satisfaction to the farmer.

LSW: Nuziveedu is the market leader in seeds having largest collection of genetic sources for the hybrid variety of cotton way ahead of other players. How did you accomplish this feat? Having accomplished your hold on the seed arena, you also have significant portion of crops and vegetables in your product portfolio. What is current status on the activity in this front?

Yes, we have begun to slowly increase our salience in crops such as corn, rice and vegetables. The company has been investing into developing good quality products to be able to compete with multinational competition and we are glad to say that we are seeing success in the same. Our share in corn has just touched double digits, but we are still having single digit share in rice and vegetables. But the growths and share increase is good and we see these crops as the future growth drivers of the company.

LSW: Just as being leader in the cotton seeds, how do you see achieving the same feat in the crops and vegetable products-any particular strategy being worked out?

We have developed products and now have created separate marketing teams for the food crops and vegetables to bring additional focus on the growth engines of the company

LSW: On your R&D front.

This category is product focused and the results of a superior product can be objectively measured by the farmer in terms of the increase in incomes as a product of the yield and the price fetched. So the development of the product by the R&D team is the key to success. Marketing can only build on a good product which shows superiority over competition. Hence the focus from the company is on this aspect of the business.

LSW: Nuziveedu has entered into global market sometime back .Which are the countries that have generated good response and what are the products accepted?

The company is focused on the south Asian markets of Bangladesh and Pakistan, the South- east Asian markets of Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia and the east African markets of Kenya and Tanzania. These are markets with sufficient potential and present us with enough opportunities to grow.

Nearest future goal

The goal can never be in terms of monetary metrics like top line or bottom line. The goal of the company would be to provide good products to the farmer which would increase his income thereby creating satisfaction. If we achieve this goal, all other indices would follow.

Sankar Iyer, LSW Lifescienceworld
www.lswlifescienceworld.com