Dec 22, 2018: Seed Coating industry of India is largely domestically driven with majority demand of major seed manufacturers for seed coating polymers being met by domestic companies. Major seed manufacturers in the Industry such as Monsanto, Bayer, DuPont Pioneer and Syngenta demand significant quantities of seed coating materials from domestic players.

The global seeds industry has changed dramatically over the past century. Farmers have been increasing the amount of purchased seed instead of using seed saved from the previous harvest. Advances in seed technology have accelerated through marker-assisted breeding. The industry has evolved further, since 1996, with the introduction of genetically modified crops. Since 2000, it has been observed that the global seeds market has almost tripled. Both, conventional and genetically modified seeds have witnessed significant growth over the period 2012-2018. The seed industry is concentrated in more industrialized and developed economies as of now.

Majority of the major seed manufacturers, namely Syngenta, Mahyco, Advanta Seeds, Monsanto, Ankur Seeds, Ajeet Seeds, Nuziveedu, Pioneer and others are purchasing seed coating polymers from Incotec and Littles Oriental Balm and Pharmaceutical Ltd (Little Polykote)

Pelleting/encrusting is relatively a new concept in the seed coating industry of India. Pelleting is a form of layering to make the seed more round for mostly mechanical planting. Pelleting, specifically has observed healthy growth over the period FY ’2013-FY’2018 and it has been projected to witness the same over the coming years as well.

Sampatti Industries was established in 2002 as a manufacturer of seed coating polymers and colorants. It has established itself as reputable seed enhancement products company over the past decade. The company is set up in Jalgao, Maharashtra

Several players in the domestic seed coating market have been using low quality dyes and other cheap materials to manufacture their products. This allows them to lower their cost of production and increase their profit margins. However, using such raw materials to manufacture polymers can have a very negative impact on the seed and such materials can also enter the food chain, addicting humans to plastic eating!

This continuous rise in production of seeds in India can be attributed to increasing adoption rate of developed technology and rise in demand for seeds from genetically modified crops. The major proportion of this incline in production was due to rise in production of Guar seed. One of the significant factors that encourage agricultural community to go behind this crop is the comparatively less expense and high returns yielded by this reap.

Indian seed industry is characterized by its heterogeneity. The product segments of the industry include the major field crops such as paddy, cotton, wheat, maize, millets, sunflower and vegetables.