The Access to Seeds Index is now part of the World Benchmarking Alliance. All indexes up to 2020 can be found here. New indexes and methodologies are published on the website of the WBA.
Stay here worldbenchmarkingalliance.orgNuziveedu Seeds focuses on the breeding, production and marketing of genetically modified cotton, hybrid field crop and hybrid vegetable varieties. Founded in 1973, Nuziveedu Seeds is the first company in the NSL Group to have expanded into other commodities (sugar and cotton) and business areas (textiles, power, infrastructure and real estate). Nuziveedu Seeds exports to international markets within South and Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Eastern and Southern Africa. Its main crops are cotton, maize and rice.
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Access to Seeds Index
South and Southeast Asia
Nuziveedu Seeds ranks ninth in the South and Southeast Asia Index. The company scores relatively high in Research & Development, in part because of its focus on breeding traits specific to the needs of smallholder farmers and for incorporating local knowledge and feedback into its R&D activities. Nuziveedu Seeds reports clear views regarding Intellectual Property and demonstrates favorable policies for access to its Genetic Resources. Capacity Building is the main area where it could improve its performance.
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| Sales | Seed type | Source | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| bgd | ind | idn | pak | lka | tha | Hybrid | OPV | GM | Own breeding program |
Public research institute |
Licensed from other company |
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| Field crops | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Cowpea | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Maize | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Millets | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Pigeon pea | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Rice, paddy | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Sorghum | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Sunflower | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Wheat | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Vegetables | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Cabbage | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Carrot | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Cauliflower | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Cucumber | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Eggplant | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Gourd | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Green pea | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Melon | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Okra | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Onion | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Pepper (hot) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Pepper (sweet) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Pumpkin | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Squash | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Tomato | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Watermelon | |||||||||||||||||||||
The company regularly invites smallholder farmers to its multilocational product evaluation trials and product development trials to provide feedback on seed products and their suitability in line with breeding objectives. Feedback from women smallholder farmers is sought specifically on improving traits related to the ease of picking and harvesting for crops such as chili, tomato and okra.
The company carries out extension work in India, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Pakistan. In partnership with the Uttar Pradesh government in India, it carries out extension work for 40,000 farmers in 25 districts.
Nuziveedu Seeds collaborates with farmer organizations in India in extension and advocacy activities. It is encouraged to strengthen and/or disclose the scope of these activities, including its activities with next-generation farmers and the use of smallholder farmer-friendly ICT.
Although the company markets its seed to smallholder farmers, it could provide more details on how it offers tailored seed packaging and labeling, and how it implements mechanisms to prevent the sale of counterfeit and expired seed.
Nuziveedu Seeds works with the Indian National Genebank to enable access to genetic resources, as per national policies and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA). The company provides seed samples to breeders and shares genetic resources using the internationally recommended Standard Material Transfer Agreement for this purpose.
The company’s breeding program includes developing traits that are useful to smallholder farmers, such as resistance to brown plant hopper and stem borer in rice, downy mildew and leaf spot in millets, and the fall army worm in maize. The latter is a major problem in Africa and has recently been discovered in Asia.
For cotton, the company’s main crop, it has an extensive breeding program that includes the development of transgenic traits. Transgenic food crop varieties are not present in the company’s portfolio.
The company has a strict no child labor policy in place for its seed production activities. It has appointed so-called vigilance officers who are tasked with monitoring and evaluating this during seed production, as well as encouraging and supporting families to send their children to school.
In dryland and rainfed regions, Nuziveedu Seeds works with its distribution partners on extension agreements to provide seed on credit to smallholder farmers. In doing so, the company allows these farmers more flexibility in repaying seed costs, giving them time to earn an income from the sale of their products.
Access to Seeds Index
South and Southeast Asia