Seed giant Monsanto meets its match as Hindu nationalists assert power in Modi's India
FARM POWER: A farmer protests against Monsanto in New Delhi in August 2013. The dispute in India with the cotton seed multinational has disrupted the country's $1.8 billion-a-year seed industry. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi
A little-known cotton seed company has taken on Monsanto, with the aid of a right-wing Hindu group that helped propel the Indian prime minister to power. The dispute threatens to upend the world's largest cotton-producing market.
NEW DELHI – Tens of millions of dollars were within reach for M. Prabhakara Rao as he prepared in April 2015 to take his Indian cotton seed company public.
The Indian businessman already had $54 million in initial funding from an American private equity investor. Rao had also locked in a long-term licensing agreement with Monsanto Co, the world’s largest seed company, for the technology used in genetically modified cotton seeds that made up the majority of his annual sales.
