Hyderabad gets new MCRC research facility

DuPont leaders and employees joined together to inaugurate its newest Multi-Crop Research Centre (MCRC) in the city.

The flagship plant breeding and research facility enables the DuPont Pioneer seed business to bring innovation to multiple crops that are grown locally thereby improving the productivity of Indian farmers.

“Agriculture has a significant role in socio-economic fabric of India. Our investment in this multi-crop research centre demonstrates our ongoing commitment to harness DuPont global science to create local solutions for Indian farmers and help address food security challenges,” said Balvinder Singh Kalsi, president, DuPont South Asia.

“The new research facility will play a pivotal role in understanding regional challenges, weather changes, soil types and applying science to develop higher yielding products suitable to the Indian environment,” he added.

Spreading across a land area of more than 100 acres, the construction of the MCRC began in May 2012.

The new research centre will accommodate up to 120 researchers engaged in corn, rice, millet, mustard and cotton hybrid seeds development catering to farmers in the Indian subcontinent. The facility will enable the deployment of trailblazing breeding technologies such as molecular breeding, doubled haploids for development of high quality hybrids adapted to local and regional growing conditions.

“We are pleased to build this type of cutting-edge plant research facility in India where some of the greatest opportunities to address global food security exist,” said Sharad Khurana, country manager, DuPont Pioneer India.