Seed Industry

The global food versus fuel debate will be rendered irrelevant by its biofuel business model, claims Reliance Life Sciences or RLS. “Our model is unique in the sense that it reverses the whole argument of fuel versus food, which the Western world is currently battling with, (as it leads) to fuel with food, with the promotion of food intercrops,” says K.V. Subramaniam, CEO and president of RLS, part of the Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd or RIL group. The company says it is currently testing intercropping of jatropha and pongamia (non-edible fuel crops) along with a diverse set of food crops including corn, mango, medicinal plants and vegetables in its research and development farms at Gandhar in Baruch, Gujarat, and Nagothane in Raigad, Maharashtra. Aiming high : CEO of Reliance Life Sciences, K.V. Subramaniam. “It’s good that big companies do intercropping and lead by example,” says Pushpito K. Ghosh, director of Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Ins...