India’s leading agrochemical company Crystal Crop Protection on Wednesday launched the post-emergent herbicide ‘Hola’ to protect sugarcane crops from weeds and help farmers to increase their income from sugarcane across the country, especially for the farmers in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra.
According to the company, Hola is tested in various state agriculture universities and more than 2000 demonstrations were laid in the last five years with sugarcane farmers. Hola has been found effective in controlling narrow leaf weeds, broadleaf weeds and Sedges specially Cyperus Rotundus (Motha), which is a major problem faced by farmers.
“We envisage, in near future, sugarcane will play a crucial role in Indian agriculture and economy. In this context, we are excited to present a new herbicide developed by in-house R&D for the sugarcane farmers which will support them in increasing productivity. We look forward to receive its patent soon.” said CS Shukla, Senior Vice President (Strategic Marketing), Crystal Crop Protection.
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The company plans to make Hola available to cane growers in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat in the immediate future which will further strengthen Crystal’s presence in the sugarcane belt.
“As a nation, we incur over Rs 18,000 crore losses due to weeds in sugarcane, Hola will provide great relief to sugarcane farmers who suffer losses due to various kinds of weeds in the crop,” said Ajit Shankhdhar, National Sales Head, Crystal Crop Protection.
The company plans to attain a market share of 5-6 per cent in the first year of launch and 12-15 per cent in the next couple of years, the category of herbicide available to cane growers. Hola is expected to increase the company’s topline by 3-8 per cent in the near future.
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Driven by its in-house R&D, acquisition and collaboration with international players, the company has launched 17 products in the last two years and is ready to launch six to seven more products shortly depending upon the grant of registration by the regulatory authority.
Recently, Crystal had completed the acquisition of four hybrid seeds — cotton, mustard, pearl millet, and grain sorghum — from Bayer in India.
Photo caption: From Left to Right: Crystal Senior Vice President (Strategic Marketing), CS Shukla; Managing Director, Ankur Aggarwal and Chairman, NK Aggarwal.
