Godrej Agrovet (GAVL)’s Crop Protection Business today announced that its bio-stimulant, Double, has completed 25 years of enabling better yield for Indian farmers. Double has treated three crore acres of Indian farmland and brought prosperity to the lives of two crore farming families over the last 25 years, the crop protection company claimed. The company also launched a celebratory pack marking 25 years of Double and its focus on better farming in addition to protecting farmers from counterfeit products.
“Double’s new pack is user-friendly and comes in a safe packaging bottle. It has a tamper-evident seal which blasts open and falls when anyone tries to open the bottle. The label has complex watermarks to avoid duplication and the bottle also has a hologram – a unique 9-digit code on each and every bottle to ensure authenticity. While the hologram also has smartly embedded letter ‘G’ to assure the customer that the product is genuine, ‘Braille’ marking on the neck reading danger has also been added for the visually impaired,” Godrej Agrovet said.
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“Godrej Agrovet’s Double, a bio-stimulant, reduces flower drops and fruit shedding in cotton, soybean, groundnut and vegetable (tomato) crops. Flower drops and fruit shedding impact farmers’ yield by 15-25 per cent. Proper farming practices, coupled with the right dosage of Double, can aid farmers in increasing their yield. In cotton, Double aids in better fertilisation, thereby enabling better seed setting (a key developmental stage in the process of seed formation) and stronger pod (a rounded mature fruit) foundation. On average, two applications of Double aid in enhancing yield by 18-20 per cent. A similar application of Double on soybean and groundnut crops helps the crop overcome the fertilisation barriers, reduces flower dropping, and improves pod setting resulting in an increase in yield by 30-35 per cent and 10-12 per cent respectively. For tomatoes, it helps improve the viability of the pollen and improves flower-to-fruit conversion, resulting in reduced flower dropping and more fruits per plant, uniform size, colour and improved fruit weight by 15-18 per cent depending on the crop,” the crop protection company claimed.
Highlighting the 25 years journey of Double, Balram Singh Yadav, Managing Director, Godrej Agrovet said, “Double was launched with an objective to help farmers increase the yield of their crops. Since its inception, we have touched the lives of two crore Indian farmers and have witnessed an average 18 per cent increase in yield and hence income of our Indian farmers. We are confident that a product like Double, if used in proper quantity and at the right time, would aid farmers to further enhance their yield and income in addition to ensuring the food security of our nation.”
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According to GAVL, it started working on Homobrassinolide (HBR), a raw material for Double, in 1992. Witnessing its role in improving cell division and cell elongation in crops, the company launched Double in 1998, enabling farmers to leverage its benefits. In addition to reducing flower drop and fruit shedding, a bio-stimulant like Double also aids in enhancing a crop’s ability to withstand biotic and abiotic stresses.
Abiotic stress includes temperature, ultraviolet radiation, salinity, floods, droughts other atmospheric events, which impact crop plants while biotic stress refers to damage caused by insects, herbivores, fungi, bacteria or weeds.
Highlighting the importance of bio-stimulants, Burjis Godrej, Executive Director, Godrej Agrovet, said, “70 per cent of yield gap globally is dictated by climate change. In India too, soaring temperature and erratic rainfall continue to impact crop yield and favour weed and pest proliferation. It is under such unfavourable conditions that bio-stimulants aid in enhancing the yield of the crops. The global and Indian bio-stimulant market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 11.8 and 12.5 per cent respectively by 2031. Hence, as the world’s largest producer of HBR, we at GAVL will continue serving Indian farmers by offering different bio-stimulants as per their crop requirement.”
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“India is one of the few countries around the world to define separate regulations for bio-stimulants. With the unorganised biochemical sector, worth INR 1,640 crores, being one of the fastest growing subsectors, the guidelines released in 2021 mandates manufacturers to label the products to include chemical composition and expiry date, as well as mandatory prior registration with the government,” the company informed.
Speaking on the importance of regulation, Rajavelu NK, CEO, Crop Protection Business, Godrej Agrovet said, “A farmer invests in a crop protection product with the hope of achieving optimum yield from his crop. With 85 per cent of Indian farmers being small and marginalised, it is imperative to provide them with a quality product which is genuine and easy to use. Hence, while setting up the regulation is a first step, there is a need for industry-wide collaboration to create awareness amongst the farmers by educating them on the benefits surrounding the usage of authentic product in appropriate and recommended quantity.”
The new packaging of Godrej Agrovet Double is aligned with the guidelines laid down by the government and is convenient to use, the company informed. The climate crisis has cost India 5 million hectares of crops in 2021. With pests and diseases and poor agricultural practice impacting the yield too, GAVL believes that it is the need of the hour for the industry to create awareness around crop protection – utilising right product at the right time and right spray – and the importance of bio-stimulants along with the integrated pest management (IPM).
