Tierra Agrotech: The Indian 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?

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”

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.

Today, Tierra Agrotech Private Limited owns Asia’s largest collection of cotton germplasm.

That’s decades of research. Hundreds of crores of investment. Seven truckloads of seed that arrived in air-conditioned tractor trailers at Tierra’s headquarters in the village of Dabilpur, on the outskirts of Hyderabad, earlier this year.

AUTHOR

Gayathri Vaidyanathan

Gayathri writes on health, environment and science. She has reported and produced stories for the Washington Post, Discover, Nature, and the New York Times, amongst other publications. In her last assignment, she was the lead science writer for E&E News in Washington, D.C. E&E News is a news organisation focused on energy and the environment. Over the past decade, Gayathri has travelled across North America, Africa and Asia on long-form reporting projects. She has a master’s in journalism from Columbia University and a bachelor's in biochemistry from McMaster University in Ontario. At The Ken, Gayathri will write on healthcare, the pharmaceutical business and the environment. Based in Bengaluru, you can reach her at gayathri at the rate the-ken.com

View Full Profile

Others tell you what. We tell you the ‘So What?’

Read articles that decode the most significant shifts happening around business, technology, startups and healthcare. 1000+ articles for subscribers of the India edition. 150+ articles for subscribers of the Southeast Asia edition. Plus premium newsletters that help you make sense of the world around you.

So much journalism in India is superficial.

Articles are generic, almost cookie-cutter in their approach. And they don’t provide enough context on the issues they cover. The Ken is different. I don’t always agree with everything they say but I appreciate their commitment to publishing deeply reported narratives and investigations. Their reporters find new ways to analyze tech among other industries. And that’s always worth a read.

Sid Talwar / Co-Founder and Partner / Lightbox Venture Capital

As entrepreneurs, we thrive on being in the know at all times.

A personal subscription to The Ken was a no brainer. But as startup founders, this isn't enough. Team members also need to be in the know, for everyone handles customer-facing responsibilities and an ecosystem change that impacts customers also impacts us

Kiran Jonnalagadda / Co-founder / HasGeek and Internet Freedom Foundation