Mahyco Grow

Access to seeds for smallholder farmers
The company has a well-developed access to seeds strategy, including strategic goals related to various aspects of ensuring access to seeds for smallholder farmers. These goals include objectives and time-bound targets related to research and development, marketing and sales and seed production. The company reviews the strategic goals periodically and reports on its progress specific to each strategic goal.

Stakeholder engagement
Mahyco undertakes stakeholder engagement activities with organisations such as the Federation of Seed Industry of India. The company discloses that it identifies and engages with stakeholders through a stakeholder mapping process. This process outlines the objectives of engagement, frequency of activities and expected outcomes, covering topics such as research and development, seed production and marketing and sales.

Licensing
Mahyco has donated Bt brinjal technology to research institutes in India, the Philippines and Bangladesh for the benefit of smallholder farmers in the index region.

Plant breeding activities in index regions
Mahyco has its own breeding programme in India and Vietnam. It develops improved hybrid and open-pollinated varieties of both vegetable and field crops, as well as local crops such as Indian mustard and tinda. The company invests in the capacity building of local research staff in the region through internal workshops as well as national and international conferences and seminars.

Local participation in breeding/variety development
The company uses feedback from local farmers, consumers, traders and designs and other stakeholders in index countries to inform its breeding programmes. It uses this information to design its programmes accordingly to fulfil the trait requirements of index countries India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Philippines and Indonesia, respectively. The company also gives specific attention to feedback from women farmers and collects their feedback on crop performance and ease of cultivation.

Breeding programme for specific traits
Mahyco’s breeding programme includes developing a number of traits that are particularly important for smallholder farmers, such as improved nutritional value and shelf life. The company also focuses on incorporating resistance and tolerance to regionally important pests and diseases, such as bacterial leaf blast, brown plant hopper and okra enation leaf curl virus.

Seed production activities in the index region
The company reports has seed production locations in India and Vietnam, where it involves a network of over 100,000 contract growing farmers. Mahyco Grow further indicate involving local players such as farmer organisations and cooperatives as well as intermediaries in their seed production activities.

Engaging smallholder farmers in seed production
Mahyco discloses that smallholders make up about 95% of all farmers who engage with the company for seed production. The company offers contracts to farmers, which include terms on quality, agronomic practices, supplies and payment which are favourable to smallholder farmers.

Quality assurance and after-sales
Mahyco has a laboratory that is accredited through the International Seed Testing Association (ISTA) for safeguarding the quality and safety of seeds. The company has recall procedures to ensure that seeds are not sold beyond their shelf life and uses holograms on its packaging to prevent counterfeiting of its seeds. Additionally, Mahyco provides aftersales support to its customers through a formal customer complaint system.

Demonstration programmes
The company has demonstration and promotion strategies, including crop shows, demonstrations and social media promotions in India, and it specifically targets women by holding women farmers’ meetings.

Extension services
The company provides extension services in India by conducting demonstrations and technical advisory meetings to educate farmers on farming practices. During these meetings they also provide crop advisory services. Mahyco Grow has reached 683,000 smallholder farmers in the period 2018-2020.

Information and communications technology (ICT)
Mahyco has trained approximately 100,000 contract growing farmers on how to use digital tools for communication. All of its communication with contract-growing farmers, which includes services on crop advice and seed-supply payments has been digital to date. The company has also used several ICT tools to reach commercial farmers, including WhatsApp groups, Zoom and Facebook Live, which have been especially useful during the Covid-19 pandemic to ensure farmer reach.

Access to output markets
Mahyco Grow has initiatives to provide market linkages between smallholder farmers, food processing companies and retailers. The company further launched a digital marketplace through their joint-venture company Groindigo, where they connected over 50,000 farmers to 2,000 buyers, which include leading food processing companies in the region. 

Governance and accountability
Mahyco’s APEX committee of the board is responsible for implementing its access to seeds strategy. However, the company could further disclose whether it links the board’s remuneration policy to performance on its strategic objectives.

Conservation of genetic resources and access to company genetic resources
While the company conserves genetic material at its ‘Germplasm Resource Unit’, it is unclear whether it assists genebanks with the conservation of genetic diversity. The company does not disclose whether, and if so how, it provides access to its own genetic resources for the benefit of smallholder farmers in the region.

Benefit sharing
While Mahyco discloses that it participates in collective contributions within the Access and Benefit-Sharing framework, including to the National Biodiversity Authority, the company could provide greater clarity on these and possibly other contributions.

Social and labour rights in seed production
Mahyco has a policy of prohibiting child labour and forced labour and discloses that its relationship-building efforts with its contract growers involve creating awareness about health and safety. However, the company does not provide any evidence of a consistent monitoring system that regularly inspects sites where there might be issues of child labour or forced labour. It could also disclose quantitative information related to the health and safety of its farmers. Furthermore, the company does not disclose whether it pays its workers a living wage or requires its intermediaries to do so.   

Distribution channels
Mahyco distributes seeds in India, where it reaches remote areas through its wide network of distributors, including approximately 1800 distributors of field crop seeds and 2500 distributors of vegetable seeds across more than 20 states in India. The company has an opportunity to expand its distribution channels to other index countries in the region.

Cotton
Pepper (hot)
Rice, paddy

Chickpea
Maize
Millets
Rice, paddy
Sorghum
Sunflower
Wheat

Cabbage
Carrot
Cauliflower
Cucumber
Eggplant
Gourd
Okra
Onion
Pepper (hot)
Pumpkin
Tomato
Watermelon

Mustard
Tinda

Download the portfolios of all companies in the 2021 index for South and South-East Asia here.