Godrej Agrovet Limited’s (GAVL) crop protection business on Monday announced the launch of its umbrella brand PYNA for its selective cotton herbicide.

GAVL is the sole manufacturer of selective cotton herbicide — pyrithiobac sodium — and has three weed management products for cotton — Hitweed, Hitweed Maxx, and Maxxcott — which will be sold under the PYNA brand.

Cutting dependency on weed control

GAVL also said it will be extending the PYNA brand logo to co-marketers such as Bayer CropScience, Rallis India, Dhanuka Agritech, PI Industries and Indofil Industries among others, who have their own products based on the active ingredient pyrithiobac sodium sold under the umbrella brand. Easy and safe to use, PYNA brand products aid farmers reduce dependency on manual and mechanical methods of weed control too, the company said in a statement.

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Rajavelu NK, CEO, Crop Protection Business, GAVL,said, “Globally, India has the largest area under cotton cultivation. However, with only 10 per cent of the total cotton acreage area treated properly, it has not only impacted the productivity but also farmers’ profitability. Hence in order to enable sustainable cotton production, we are happy to bring our 3-marquee offerings under PYNA brand.”

“In order to ensure quality supply to farmers every time, we are excited to partner with co-marketers to leverage PYNA brand. The same will allow them to leverage the trust that Godrej brand has earned amongst the farmers in the last 36 years and collectively tap 90 per cent untapped cotton acreage,”Rajavelu added.

Herbicide usage

Further, Rajavelu said the use of herbicides has picked up with the growing labour shortage and rising costs. The cotton crop grows at a slow pace during the initial stages. Additionally, due to wider spacing between crops, weeds impact the cotton yield by up to 45-50 per cent. With PYNA brands providing a broad window of weed management options from seed sowing to the active flowering stage of crop, farmers can now get a longer duration of the weed-free crop. PYNA brands minimise the crop–weed competition and helps to establish the cotton crop in the early stages, which directly has a positive impact on the yield, the company said.

GAVL, Rajavelu said, was the first company to introduce post-emergent selective cotton herbicide, Hitweed, in 2007. Enabling cotton plants to get more space, light and air for robust growth without impacting the soil, it was developed for usage 20-25 days after sowing (DAS). Witnessing the need to protect the cotton crop during the early post-emergent phase viz. 7-15 DAS, it launched Hitweed Maxx in 2019 which enabled farmers to get superior crop safety and better efficacy. In 2023, the company launched Maxxcott — a pre-emergent herbicide eliminates growth of major weeds in cotton, ensures good growth of cotton seedlings and reduces further spread of major weeds.

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