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Wild Wild West

Tierra Agrotech: The India-based cotton behemoth no one knows of

A tiny Hyderabad-based company bought the cotton businesses of global giants Monsanto and DuPont Pioneer, vaulting into India’s seed hall of fame. Who is Tierra?

20/11/18

Gayathri Vaidyanathan

In 2017, Monsanto, the controversial GM giant, and DuPont Pioneer sold their Indian cotton businesses to Tierra

It set off alarms. Activist Vandana Shiva wrote to Indian authorities about a “shady” sale to a newbie no one’s heard of

Tierra now has Asia’s largest collection of cotton germplasm, thanks to decades of investments by Monsanto and DuPont Pioneer

The company is rapidly expanding its R&D capabilities to develop the pipeline and become “India’s Monsanto”

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The largest cotton seed company in the world is Bayer.

The second largest? A seemingly tiny Hyderabad-based agri-biotech company that recently bought the Indian cotton businesses of two agricultural giants — Monsanto and DuPont Pioneer.

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