Nuway Software

* There is a short supply of GM crops in India, which increases demand. The demand for the seeds is so high that the seed distributors sell the material at a much higher price than the retailers; ultimately the farmer pays more to the distributors.

* Many organizations such as environmental parties, consumer associations, organic groups, civil society groups put increasing pressure on seed companies and regulatory agencies to perform more research and field trials, which result in increasing prices of GM crops. This is mainly due to the inadequate crop management, regulatory barriers, and increasing weed and pest resistance. Some of the companies producing seeds say that the high prices are predominantly due to the stringent regulation by governments, which actually inflate the costs for the companies.

* Hence, the marketing strategy must focus on increasing the awareness of the benefits of GM crops among the farmers, rather than focusing on high prices. Benefits include improvement in yields, herbicide tolerance, insect-resistance, worm-free land, time & money savings from not using pesticides etc.

* To create awareness about the benefits of GM crops, a good marketing effort is to target Ministers such as Jairam Ramesh, who takes charge of Rural Development in India. The benefits of GM crops could be explained to the Minister, who in turn could organize meetings with rural leaders across states to make them understand the benefits of GM crops.

* Organizations such as United Nations Food and Agriculture, European Commission Joint Research Centre Institute for Prospective Technological Studies could be invited by the Minister to have a discussion with Indian agricultural research experts and gain insights regarding the pros and cons of GM crops.

* As high prices of GM crops stand as a significant barrier for farmers, the Minister could be advised on providing subsidies to the farmers, i.e. the GM crops could be sold to the farmers at...