INERA’s cutting edge bio inputs developed with Xenesis Institute
Field trials are the time-tested convention in bringing innovative products for agriculture to market. The information gained out of a well-designed field trial goes well beyond product development – it saves farmers money, avoids expensive mistakes, and improves environmental stewardship. Few Indian agri inputs companies follow global standards, and even fewer have authentic results to show from field trials of their products. In India’s biologicals segment, world class field trials are unheard of.
The R&D hub of bioscience company Absolute, Xenesis, has a team of over 150 world-leading scientists who are pushing the frontiers of biology to disrupt agriculture. Their bold mission is to uncover novel capabilities of nature and transform the world with their bio-abled products. Their product range includes bio-fertilizers, bio-stimulants, bio-insecticides, bio-pesticides and seed-coating products that work in a range of different climatic conditions. Agricultural bio inputs from Xenesis are responsive, durable, versatile and entirely biological – features that are necessary to bring climate resilience to global agriculture. What makes their bio inputs all the more remarkable are results from field trials of these products. Early indications show up to 20 percent higher yield than conventional inputs currently leading the market.
In under a decade, Xenesis has established expansive field trial practices that follow international standards. It runs 5 million square feet of R&D fields across eight different agroclimatic zones in the Indian subcontinent. With such diversified testing facilities, Xenesis is ensuring its products can tolerate a wide range of soils, climates and weather variations – a necessary consideration to build climate resilience into current agricultural practices. This includes a R&D facility for crop pathogens and pests in Pune and other R&D facilities in Karnal, Haryana; Indore, Madhya Pradesh; Trichy, Tamil Nadu; Dhamda, Chhattisgarh, and more locations near Delhi. With such diversified R&D trial stations, Xenesis puts its products through eight zones to ensure consistent performance in diverse agroclimatic conditions. Every product is also tested across 12 crops such as rice, cotton, soybean, sugarcane, corn, pulses, vegetables and fruit crops etc. to evaluate efficacy and versatility.
What differentiates Xenesis is also their maximalist approach to expertise in their field R&D teams. Each of their locations has two trial scientists and two assistants – more than double the industry standard. With greater competence at their trial stations, they are ensuring the quality of field trial data is consistently high. It also helps capture the right data and observations required to fast-track product development. In addition to human expertise, the field R&D team uses ARM software to store and analyse data crop performance throughout their experiments. This gives Xenesis the capabilities to derive tech-enabled insights on how their products compare to existing ones in the market.
Sunil Kalra, owner of Prabhat Seeds, a company that sells wheat and rice seeds across India, says, “I have 24 acres of field for seed trials of rice and wheat crops. I have tried almost every major company’s products on my farms, and haven’t seen any noticeable difference. With Absolute’s Inera bio inputs, I see a massive and visible increase in the health and quality of crops and seeds. I conduct extensive trials for products before I use or recommend products to my farmers, and I find the results from Inera bio inputs very compelling.”
The field trials at Xenesis are led by Dr. Ajit Kumar, a product development leader with over 16 years of experience at some of the biggest names in agriculture in the region – Bayer, BASF, DuPont, Syngenta, Dhanuka, and DSCL Shriram. He handled the herbicide portfolio at Syngenta for South Asia for 5 years, leading the development of products for India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. His rich experience is complemented by a zeal to bring farmers powerful bio-abled solutions that drive environmental sustainability and profitability.
“Working closely with farmers gives us a thorough understanding of their challenges, which informs our product development to a great extent. The bio-abled products we make for agriculture come from extensive R&D followed by rigorous field testing in a diverse range of soils and agro climatic conditions. Our field team is highly-skilled and the quality of our trials is unmatched in the biologicals space,” Dr. Ajit says. “The bio inputs made by Xenesis reduce the need for synthetic pesticides in agriculture. Through our products, we are making environmental sustainability an easy and profitable choice for farmers.”
With the threat of climate change upon us, crops as well as farm inputs need to be tolerant of environmental stresses. It calls for an overhaul in an industry that has long relied on chemicals and conventional field trial practices to enable farmers. Transforming the agriculture industry with the power of biologicals will come with a gamut of advantages, including environmental sustainability. But this shift will be no easy feat. Absolute is on a swift and steady path to do just this, and it’s a matter of time before they see it through.