Established in 2009, ACSEN HyVeg is a next-generation agriculture breeding & biotech company that focus their research to meet the present and future challenges of the global and hyper-connected world food production chain. Headquartered in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India, ACSEN HyVeg is well-known for its farmer-centric approach to agriculture, food and nutritional security. At present, Acsen HyVeg is one of the fastest-growing seed company in the country.
Led by its Managing Director, Dr. Arvind Kapur, ACSEN HyVeg provides environmentally sustainable and transformational farming solutions that enable farmers to get more profit per acre by keeping innovation at its core. The firm’s strong research and breeding set-up have helped breeding in 21 vegetable crops for hybrid seed development and improving seeds of leading open-pollinated vegetable crops. ACSEN HyVeg’s performing hybrids in key vegetable crops, including Tomato, Hot Peppers, Cucumbers, Okra, etc., are helping farmers and growers to harvest higher yields and better profitability. Dr Kapur’s knowledge and passion in seed industry brought significant improvements in providing performing seeds of different crops to the farmers and bringing profit and smile on the farmer’s face and that gave him a good sense of achievement.
Dr Kapur has 35 years of career in seed industry and covered length and breadth of Indian farming communities and supported them with good performing seeds and provided best agronomic practices to improve their profitability. As a breeding company we have to develop those hybrids and varieties which can adapt to the changing climatic conditions which are happening more frequently.
Keeping strong focus on R&D, the company has developed hybrids for all the agro climatic zones and put those value added traits which can adapt to those challenges and give farmers the sustainable productivity. Our challenge is to continuously add diverse gene pool to meet the challenge of market and consumer.
To achieve this goal and to get skillful and trained people is now biggest challenge of the business. We have to create better pool of trained people for continuous growth. Acsen HyVeg also provides agronomic services and educates farmers regarding the judicious use of fertilizers and chemicals. ACSEN HyVeg is deploying biotechnology tools to identify disease and pest resistance genetic resources to provide seeds that need lesser chemical sprays and improve farmers’ profitability. Since 2017, Acsen HyVeg has started a new business vertical for breeding in cereal crops like corn, millets, and mustard to provide better and improved seeds in these crops.
Presently, ACSEN HyVeg is ranked fifth in the Asia Pacific and first in India by the “Access to Seed Index,” an organization supported by the Bill Gate Foundation and FAO.
The Veteran Leader
Upon completing his Ph.D. from Punjab Agricultural University, Dr. Arvind Kapur joined his alma mater as an Assistant Professor in the plant breeding department. Soon, he was promoted to Associate Professor, and in 1988, he left the university to join Pioneer Seed Company, which later became Proagro Seed Company. With his strong background in breeding and molecular genetics, Dr. Kapur led several functions at Proagro, including R&D. In 1994, he was appointed as the Director of Proagro-PGS, a joint venture between Proagro and Plant Genetic Systems of Belgium, a leading organization for biotech research. At that time, Dr. Kapur started the first ever experimental research on genetic modification in mustard seed in India. Soon, he became the MD of this joint venture and led the development of the first transgenic mustard hybrid with ‘Seedlink’ technology to create a durable male sterile system for hybrid seed production. Later, Dr. Kapur became the MD of Nunhems India and made it one of the top companies in the vegetable seed space within a decade. However, he always wanted to start an Indian company and bring it to the status of a multinational company. So, after coming out from Nunhems, India, he started Rasi HyVeg seed, a subsidiary of Rasi seeds and established a strong R&D group with investments from Rasi Seeds. The company quickly established its brand by breeding and developing performing hybrid seeds of leading vegetables. Later in 2015, the firm was renamed as ACSEN HyVeg after it demerged from Rasi seed company.
ACSEN HyVeg is well known for vegetable research was something Dr. Kapur keenly envisioned. The brand became the fastest growing brand of vegetable seeds. It joined the list of top five companies with highest sales of vegetable seed. Within 10 years, the company got listed along with MNC’s and ranked 6th in Asia by the World benchmarking Alliance.
Under the guidance and leadership of Dr. Kapur, his team established breeding programs of 21 important vegetable crops including difficult temperate crops like cauliflower, cabbage, carrots, broccoli, kohl Rabi, onion, etc. which are difficult to breed in Indian conditions. In addition, he established strong plant breeding program in row crops and enter the market with (3M) Maize, Millets, and Mustard.
HyVeg strongly focused on further strengthening and enhancing the implementation of Biotech tools in breeding. Apart from establishing an advanced molecular lab, the company is also using the Doubled Haploids (DH) technology in many crops to speed up our breeding.
Top Priorities
Being the MD of the agricultural breeding & biotech company, Dr. Kapur’s top priority is to retain his best-performing employees and continuously keep them motivated to achieve higher targets and improve profitability. He is a people manager and always believes that people are the biggest asset for a company. So, he continuously works to improve their skills and give them even more challenging roles.
“Once they see a clear career path, their contributions to achieving success are always tremendous.”- says Dr. Kapur.
Dr Kapur believes to have open door open heart policy at work place. Unlike most conventional work places, where hierarchies are the order of the day, the Acsen HyVeg work floor is a rather democratic space. The company has an open and conducive environment for employees to grow and perform. Dr Kapur believes in walking around and interacting with employees regularly. He always shares his knowledge and experience with employees frequently to prepare them for future. The company also have robust talent review process for further development of employees for future assignments. The company also have reward and recognition system which keep employees motivated.
For aspiring leaders and young entrepreneur, Dr Kapur believes that the first and foremost is the commitment towards their passion. The main mantra for success is Learn, Learn and Learn always about your job and business you want to pursue. Don’t run after money and profits in the beginning, first establish yourself, understand different dimensions of the business particularly pitfalls and risks. Learn how to manage these and come out as winner.
Develop good and knowledgeable teams around you and allow them to be your best critics. Increase your listening skills and analyze every feedback given to you. Don’t react to situation instantly, think and analyze the situation and involve your think tank for advice and then take appropriate action. Being mindful of every stakeholder is the good trait you can develop. Remember that first learn to walk before you run so that even failure at later stage should not deter you to achieve your goals.
Driving towards a Better Future
Dr. Kapur aspires to make ACSEN HyVeg a global brand to deliver performing crop seeds to farmers globally. The company wants to provide quality products and services through its quality staff. It also wants to set up new R&D facilities in different agro-climatic zones to deliver sustainable, suitable, and good-performing crop seeds to help farmers to increase their profitability.
“Our Culture is to trust each other and together finding cost effective innovative solutions. So our vision is to always find solutions for our growers who are struggling to increase their farm incomes. We want to provide end to end solutions to our growers” states .Dr. Arvind Kapur.
Suggestions for Younger
As a veteran leader of the agriculture breeding & biotech industry, Dr. Kapur advises young leaders to select the best-performing people, trust them, and give them the right opportunity and resources to perform and create an atmosphere of innovations.
