Rallis India, a Tata Group company, has reported 74 per cent fall in June quarter consolidated net profit at ₹45 crore against ₹174 crore logged in the same period last year due to sharp rise in input cost and destocking by its dealers ahead of GST.

Revenue was down marginally at ₹463 crore (₹468 crore). The cost of raw material was up at ₹292 crore (₹200 crore). The company had registered an one-time income of ₹158 crore last June quarter from long term lease of its land at Turbhe in Navi Mumbai.

V Shankar, Managing Director & CEO, said it was a challenging quarter with dealers destocking ahead of GST and uncertainty on 40 per cent loss of excise paid on inventory goods.

However, the timely onset of monsoon has bode well for the seeds business under Metahelix registering a growth of 36 per cent in revenue at ₹226 crore and profit before tax of ₹57 crore which was up 25 per cent.

“We are expecting a much better Kharif season with monsoon covering the entire country. The depressed farm earnings is also expected to get a major boost," he said.

The company has launched an online agri-solutions platform Rallis Samrudh Krishi to improve farmer's crop productivity. It has also launched Rallis Krishi Samadhan, an app for the farming community and Drishti, a predictive analytics system to provide current and forecasted information on crop health, pest/disease, soil moisture, crop acreage, crop yield, fertiliser requirements, and so on.

“We are expecting to service 500,000 farmers this season and decided to focus on five-six crops," he said.

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