1. A
Project Proposal on
Study on Perception and Acceptance of GM-Corn(Maize)
By Growers and Customers through Conducting Survey in
Major Corn Growing Areas of Maharashtra
To be done at
Green Gold Seeds Ltd, Aurangabad
Industry Guide, Faculty Advisor,
Dr. Santosh Taware Dr. Sanjiv Kumar
VicePresident (R&D) IABMI
Submitted by
Dheeraj Narayanrao Karle
Reg No- 04-1173-2009
International Agri-Business Management Institute
Anand Agricultural University
Anand
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2. Company Profile:
Green Gold Seeds Ltd. established in the year 2001, is considered and
recognized as the fastest growing seed company in India. In this short
time span, the company has gained reputation of quality seed supplier and
therefore enjoys the loyalty of large number of user farmers. In order to
continue this symbiotic relationship Green Gold Seeds Ltd., further
organizing its seed chain to serve Indian Farmers with Quality seed
products. This has encouraged us to establish a Research and
Development Division separately. The very purpose of R & D is to:
Understanding the farmer and market requirements in designing hybrid
seed products. Develop, test and release suitable hybrid products to
strengthen product portfolio. Win the confidence of marketing network.
Support production and Quality control units by supplying best quality of
breeder’s seeds.
R & D activities being conducted on more than 30 crops including Bt-
Cotton, Cereals, Vegetables Oil Seeds, Fiber Leguminous and Fruits.
This has enabled us to decorate basket of products portfolio with more
than 50 research products.
Areas of marketing in India are below: Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh,
Karnataka, and Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Tamilnadu & Orissa.
Research farms of GGSL: Siddhant, Isha, Pakhora, Varun, Tanushree,
Kavita, Swaraj, Saurabh farms.
Introduction:
The development of a continuous and steady stream of innovations is the
blood of an organization. Organization remains viable in the marketplace
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3. by introducing value adding products, services or processes in their
current ones. This helps to retain current customers and attract future
ones, and hence by considering this Green Gold Seeds Ltd. is going to
come up with ‘GM Corn’. GM Corn is yet new concept in India, but this
project will give potentiality and will help to detect major challenges in
this industry.
Introduction to Indian Seed Industry:
Seed is the basic and most critical input for sustainable agriculture. The
response of all other inputs depends on quality of seeds to a large extent.
It is estimated that the direct contribution of quality seed alone to the total
production is about 15–20% depending upon the crop and it can be
further raised up to 45% with efficient management of other inputs. 70%
of India’s seeds’ sales come from farmer breed seeds, 26% from those
breed in publicly financed institutions, and only 4% from researched
hybrids.(2009)
Overview of Maize (Corn):
Maize (Corn), is of American origin, and after wheat and rice, it is the
most important cereal grain in the world. It provides nutrition to both
humans (33.3%) and animals (66.6 %). It Serves as basic raw material for
the production of starch, oil and protein, alcoholic beverages, food
sweeteners and more recently fuel. Maize is mainly grown in India. It
occupies an area of about 6 million hectares which accounts for about 23
percent of the total area in India. Maize grain contains about 10 %
protein, 4 % oil, 70 % carbohydrate. Maize grain has significant
quantities of vitamin ‘A’, nicotinic acid and vitamin E.
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4. Indian Scenario:
India is an agriculture country. India's maize production fluctuates
between 10-14 million tons, with 80-90% of the production being in the
kharif season. Major states that contribute in Maize productions are
Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra Punjab, Uttar Pradesh
and Madhya Pradesh. Around 6.5 million tons (roughly 50 % of total
consumption) goes for feed use, primarily for poultry & animal feed.
Another 1 million tons of corn is used by the starch industry. Regarding
productivity of maize, Punjab ranks first (3291 kg/ha) followed by
Karnataka (3200 kg/ha). In India, maize is grown in all the seasons i.e.,
Kharif, Rabi and summer. Of these three seasons, nearly 85% of the
production is from Kharif season, 8-10% during Rabi season and
remaining 4-5% during Summer season.
Maharashtra Scenario:
The total area under maize crop in Maharashtra, during 2007-08 was
5711 hundred hectares while production of 15452 hundred tonnes with
productivity of 2706 kg/ha. The position of Maharashtra in maize
production is comparatively poor. Maize is grown in all the district of
Maharashtra with varying extent. However, the major maize growing
districts are Jalgaon, Aurangabad, Nasik, Solapur, Ahmednagar, Jalna,
Dhule , Nandurbar, Kolhapur and Sangli.
GM (Transgenic Maize) Corn:
Transgenic maize (corn) has been deliberately genetically modified (GM)
to have agronomically desirable traits. Traits that have been engineered
into corn includes resistance to herbicides and resistance to insect pests,
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5. the latter being achieved by incorporation of a gene that codes for the
Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) toxin.
In 2009, transgenic maize was grown commercially in 11 countries,
including the United States (where 85% of the maize crop was genetically
modified), Brazil (36% GM), Argentina (83% GM), South Africa (57%
GM), Canada (84% GM), Philippines (19% GM) and Spain (20% GM).
Bt corn is a variant of maize, genetically altered to express the bacterial
Bt toxin, which is poisonous to insect pests. In case of corn, major pests
are cob borer, stem borer, etc. Expressing the toxin is achieved by
inserting a gene from the microorganism Bacillus thuringiensis into the
corn genome. This gene codes for a toxin that causes the formation of
pores in the Lepidoptera larval digestive tract. These pores allow
naturally occurring enteric bacteria, such as E. coli and Enterobacter, to
enter the hemocoel, where they multiply and cause sepsis. (Broderick and
others., PNAS 2006) This is contrary to the common misconception that
Bt toxin kills the larvae by starvation.
Rationale of the Study:
In India the concept of GM-Corn is new, Green Gold Seeds Ltd has
started research and conducting the field trials in companys research
farms. Therefore the survey of growers as well as customers in this
project gives valuable information for developing marketing strategy for
GM corn, to know about the perception and acceptance level of GM corn
as compared to existing hybrid maize varieties of corn(maize), and to
attract growers as well as simultaneously customers and gives insights to
know their expectations.
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6. Objectives:
1) To evaluate cost of cultivation in Corn.
2) To find out the perception and acceptance of GM Corn.
3) To find out growers awareness towards weedicides utilization for
Corn.
4) To find out growers awareness towards pesticides utilization for Corn.
5) To estimate trend of weedicides & pesticides utilization.
6) To study losses occurred due to various pests in Corn.
7)To derive WTP (willingness to pay) for GM Corn.
Scope of the Study: The survey will help the company to examine the
attitude of growers as well as dealers, distributors etc. towards existing
hybrid varieties of corn seeds and to check their response towards GM
Corn.
Research Methodology:
• Data Source: Primary and Secondary Data
• Research Approach: Survey Method
• Research Instrument: Questionnaire
• Types of Questions: Structured (open ended and close ended)
• Sampling Unit: Farmers and Dealers.
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7. • Sampling Size: Farmers-300
Dealers-30
• Sampling Method: Convenience Sampling
• Contact Method: Personal Interview of Respondents
• Area of Research: Three Districts of Maharashtra namely Aurangabad,
Jalgaon, and Solapur.
Limitations:
1) More size of the respondents and less time is available.
2) Data provided by the respondents may not be authentic.
3) Secondary data collected from different sources may be out-dated
References:
Pandey M. and Tiwari D.(2010), “The Agribusiness Book, seed
industry”. Page no. 550-579.
Feschotte C and Pritham E. (2009). "A cornucopia of Helitrons shapes the
maize genome". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Page
no. 22-24
Doebley J. F. (2004). "The genetics of maize evolution". Annual Review
of Genetics. Page no. 38: 37–59.
Kale D.M. and Patel N.P.(2008), Role of private seed companies for
quality seed production, Indian seed industry.Page no 17.
http://www.greengoldseeds.co.in, accessed on 22/01/2011
http://agricoop.nic.in/Agristatistics.html, accessed on 23/01/2011
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8. http://agricoop.nic.in/kharif.html, accessed on 23/01/2011
http://www.icrisat.org/vasat/learning_resources, Accessed on 24/01/2011
http://www.indiaseed.com, accessed on 24/01/2011
http://www.TransgenicMaize.wiki.org, accessed on 25/01/2011
http://www.Karvycomtrade.com/karvy special report_20060727_01.pdf,
accessed on 25/01/2011
QUETIONNAIRE FOR FARMERS
1) General Information:
Name of the farmer:
Address:
2) Farm size(acres):
3) Area under maize crop:
4) In which season do you cultivate corn?
Kharif
Rabi
Summer
5) Corn yield (tones/acre):
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9. 6) Is there Effect of promotional activity on your purchase behaviour?
Advertisement
Discount
Field demo
Posters / banners
Exhibitions
7) From which source you get information regarding seeds?
News paper
Friends
Relatives
TV
KVK’s
Fellow farmers
8)Factors considered while purchasing corn seeds?
Yield
Price
Durability
Water requirement
Fodder use
Quality
Disease resistant
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10. 9) Purpose of corn cultivation:
Food
Feed
Fodder
Selling Seeds
10) Seed preference (seed value type):
Low Medium High- Loose/cheap
value
11) Cost of cultivation for corn (Rs/acre):
Cost
Seeds
Land preparation- ploughing,
sowing, etc.
Labour & intercultural operations .
Insecticides
Weedicides
Fertilizers
Any other
12) Weedicide drivers:
Labour unavailability Yield enhancement
13) which weedicides do you use for corn ?
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11. 14) which pesticides do you use for corn ?
15) which are major pests found in your crop?
16) Yield loss due to major pests?
17) Pest control measures per acre:
17.1) Chemical costing.
Chemicals No of sprays Cost per spray
used
17.2) labour charges specially for spray.
No of days No. of labours Cost per labour/day
18) Weed control measures:
18.1) Chemicals costing:
Chemicals used No. of sprays Cost per spray
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12. 18.2) labour charges specially for spray.
No No.of Cost per
of labours labour/day
days
19) Preference for type of corn:
WR/HR
PR/IR
DT
20) Preference for GM-Corn Vs F1 Hybrid:
21) Preference for type GM-Corn:(rating on priority 1-4)
Pest Draught Weedicide High
resistance tolerant resistant yielding
22) willingness / general price preference for GM-Corn:
25% more than
F1
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13. 50% more than
F1
100% more than
F1
150% more than
F1
QUETIONNAIRE FOR DEALERS/DISTRIBUTORS
1) General Information:-
Name of the dealer:______________________________________
Name of the firm:________________________________________
Address: _______________________________________________
2) How much is total sales of corn seeds?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3) Which are the major crops cultivated in this area?
______________________________________________________
4) Which are the major market players in seed market?
______________________________________________________
5) Which brands of seeds are utilized by farmers for corn Cultivation?
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14. ______________________________________________________
6) According to you which sales promotion activities are more effective?
Posters/Samples
Video shows
Jeep campaign
Farmers meetings
Field demonstration
Press advertisement
7) Market type with proportion in %?
Low-value Medium-type High-value
8) Which are major market drivers?
_______________________________________________
9) Which weedicides are purchased by farmers?
________________________________________________
10) what is the trend of sales of weeicides?
_________________________________________________
11) Farmers utilizing weedicides only for corn?
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15. _________________________________________________
12) Which pesticides are purchased by farmers?
________________________________________________
13) what is the trend of sales of pesticides?
________________________________________________
14) Farmers utilizing pesticides only for corn?
________________________________________________
15) Preference for type of corn:
WR/HR
PR/IR
DT
16) Preference for GM-Corn Vs F1 Hybrid:
______________________________________
17) Preference for type GM-Corn:(rating on priority 1-4)
Pest Draught Weedicide High
resistance tolerant resistant yielding
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16. 18) willingness / general price preference for GM-Corn:
25% more than F1
50% more than F1
100% more than F1
150% more than F1
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