Mahyco Inks Deal with Bose Institute on Lactin Gene

In the presence of India's Union Minister of Science and Technology Prithviraj Chavan, the Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company Limited (Mahyco) signed a series of biotechnology transfer agreements with Bose Institute, Kolkatta and Assam Agricultural University (AAU), Jorhat on August 28, 2009 at New Delhi, India. These biotechnology transfer agreements deal with the Garlic Lectin gene developed by Bose Institute, Kolkata and a modified Bt gene developed by the Assam Agriculture University (AAU), Jorhat under the aegis of Indo-Swiss Collaboration on Biotechnology (ISCB), a collaborative project between Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and India's Department of Biotechnology (DBT).

These biotechnology acquisitions will allow Mahyco to develop commercial biotech product such as insect resistant chickpea - one of the most important pulse crops in India. At the same time, the State Agriculture Universities will be able to develop products for resource poor farmers in India. Minister Chavan said that biotechnology applications have already demonstrated their impact in healthcare through the use of new generation vaccines, diagnostics and biological drugs. In case of agriculture, genetically modified crops particularly Bt cotton, biofertilizers, biopesticides and molecular breeding technologies have resulted in crop improvement both in terms of quality and yield of crops.

"The international collaboration and partnerships are essential for updating and advancing the state-of-the-art technologies in India and facilitating adoption of the latest technology complementary to the research and development work with the most advanced countries for mutual benefit", lauded the Minister. He also called upon public sector institutions to emulate this example and gear up to develop technologies for increasing productivity and quality for crops particularly suited for rain-fed situation and drought.

A press release by the Press Information Bureau (PIB), Government of India is available at http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=52228 For more information about Mahyco visit http://www.mahyco.com/  and Barwale Foundation at: http://www.barwalefoundation.org/  For more information about crop biotech in India contact b.choudhary@cgiar.org and k.gaur@cgiar.org