Kaveri Seed Company

“We are market leaders in maize, sunflower, bajra and varietals rice. Says Mithun, executive director.

Kaveri Seed Company was established in 1974 by Mr. G. V. Bhaskar Rao, CMD, just after completing his graduation in agriculture. He is the main promoter of the company. Mr. Mithun is the executive director. He has done his MBA. “It is our family business but I am there in the company from 2005,” he says. The company is headquartered in Secunderabad, Andhra Pradesh.

When asked what made the company focus on seeds, Mr. Mithun says, “Seed is a living entity and it is the most vital input in agriculture. If you do not have a seeds which does not have the potential to give enough yield then the inputs like fertilizers pesticides etc will not help the plant.”

The company started its operations in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. It later on expanded its operation across India to have pan India presence. “We are market leaders in maize, sunflower, bajra and varietals rice. And we have presence in crops like cotton, jowar, vegetables, hybrid paddy etc. and we hope that we will have a good market share in all the crops in the coming years,” avers Mr. Mithun.

Source of Seeds
Mr. Mithun maintains, “We have got a huge collection of germplasm and from them we breed for the desired traits and after getting the right combination we will enter into an agreement with farmers for taking up production. After that it is transported to our processing plants and there we clean, grade it and sometimes we even treat it with some chemicals to avoid soil born diseases and then we supply it to distributors. Retailers in turn supply it to farmers. To do the above mentioned activity it takes a minimum of 6 to 8 years. Supplying of the seed mainly depends on the forecast of the demand and taking up the production. For example if you want to sell the seeds in 2015, you need to start your activity now. These are the entry barriers in the industry.”

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