H.U.Gugle group which is into diverse business sectors ranging from textiles to pharmaceuticals to electronics, established the H.U Gugle Agri-Biotech in the year 2001.The dream vision of its founder & promoter director, Ramesh Gugle, the biotech company was established with the aim to work with and for the farmer community.Shailesh Kathariya, Director of the company speaks to Vyas Sivanand about its growth, research activities and future plans.What are the main activities of H.U Gugle Biotech? How many facilities do you currently operate?The company is majorly into production of Tissue Cultured (TC) Banana Plants of variety known as Grand Naine (G-9) which belongs to dwarf Cavendish group and also into other local varieties of banana like Elaichi, Shrimanti, etc.Apart from TC Banana we are also working onto Teak (Kuber-1520), Bamboo, Pomegranate, Potato, Sugarcane, Gerbera, Anthurium, etc.We also focus on crop technology, marketing, field trials and demonstration of these crops.We have two separate state-of-the-art tissue culture laboratories situated at Jamkhed, Ahmednagar Dist in Maharashtra and at Devanahalli, Bangalore.What are the research activities undertaken by H.U.Gugle Biotech? H U Gugle is involved in research activity on many crops namely, local specific varieties of Banana like Red Banana, Elakki Banana and many other north-east Indian varieties like Malbhog, Sabri, and Champa which are endangered but have high medicinal and commercial value.The company is also working on forest crops like Teak and Bamboo, field crops like Potato and Sugarcane, and horticulture crops like varieties of Pomegranate.We are also looking at ornamental & floriculture crops.In the Biotech space, how has H.U.Gugle Biotech been able to make a mark?Quality planting material and focussed after sales service are the fundamental principles and objectives of the company.We sincerely practice these principles which enabled us in winning the most coveted and prestigious 'Rajiv Gandhi National Quality Award' in 2010.We are the only Tissue Culture company till date to have been lauded with this award in the Agri-Biotech sector.Our labs have also been certified and recognised by the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India.What is the kind of marketing strategy being adopted by you? How wide is your network across the country? We have established a unique Depot system, wherein we encourage the local farmers and entrepreneurs to become our authorised dealers or distributors.We cover almost entire Maharashtra & Karnataka.We are also spreading into Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, etc.We have a network of more than 40 authorised Dealers having a presence in all these states.We are looking at the international markets also with our new products.What are your future plans?We are focussing on the floriculture and ornamental division.We are looking at establishing tie-ups and joint ventures with few prominent international partners.We are also looking at the opportunity of tapping the domestic corporate markets by getting into the area of contract research with different biotech and agriculture research organisations.We are also looking at contract farming with large corporate houses.The facilities required for in-house testing of finished product are established.The company will give this testing facility to other laboratories and will supply the mother plant tested material for direct commercial multiplication
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