According to the Access To Seeds Index (ASI) published by the World Benchmarking Alliance(WBA), India has emerged as a major seed hub in Asia, PTIhas reported.
The WBA is an initiative that measures and incentivises business efforts to achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs). The initiative was launched last year (September 2017) at the United Nations General Assembly.
Eighteen out of twenty four firms assessed in the study have invested in breeding and production in India. The study said that global and regional players have invested to improve crop yields of small and marginal farmers. India has approximately 10 crore smallholder farmers and grow 80 per cent of the food supply in the country.
Advanta, Acsen, HyVeg, Namdhari Seeds and Nuziveedu seeds have made it to top ten seed companies in South and South East Asia for their efforts to support small farmer productivity. The overall list of the study was topped by East-West seed company from Thailand.
