The FINANCIAL -- A small oasis of green that seems incongruous amid the dust, sprawl and functioning chaos of Bommasandra, an industrial hub on the edges of Bengaluru, is the setting for what could be a new chapter in the story of Rallis India, according to Tata.

And the protagonist that looks set to define the decisive turn in this story is Metahelix Life Sciences, an ingenious and hungry biotechnology enterprise bidding fair to play a part in hauling Indian agriculture into the new millennium.The coming together of Rallis, a 150-year-old company of Greek origin that leads the Indian agrochemicals industry, and Metahelix, established by five technology entrepreneurs in 2001, makes plenty of sense, complementing as it does the capabilities of the two entities. This explains why Rallis acquired a majority stake in Metahelix for close to Rs1 billion in late 2010, with plans to make it a wholly-owned subsidiary by 2015.

Rallis’s strengths include a portfolio of insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, and plant nutrients, a network of 1,500 distributors, and a connect with more than 500,000 Indian farmers through its Rallis Kisan Kutumba programme. The company, now a subsidiary of Tata Chemicals, had been looking to make a big push into the seeds business — as spelled out in the ‘Rallis Poised’ growth blueprint it laid down in 2007 — and Metahelix was identified as a perfect fit to realise that objective.

Metahelix is an agricultural biotechnology enterprise focused on crop improvement and increased productivity, with a well-developed expertise in crop genetics and the creation of high-performance hybrid seeds for rice, maize, cotton, millets, tomato, hot pepper, okra, etc.

The potential in this partnership of equals is plain to see. The seeds business in India is growing at 12-15 per cent a year. The seeds industry was pegged at Rs5 billion a couple of years back and is today worth more than Rs70 billion annually. Better still, the business could reach Rs120 billion in the coming five years.

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