Dr. Mandava Prabhakar Rao aged 65 years is the scion of a reputed agricultural family (born to Sri M Venkatramaiah garu and Smt. Rama Devi garu), hailing from Guntur but now settled in Krishna District of Andhra Pradesh, India. Dr. Prabhakar Rao is an alumnus of the institute of Agricultural Science, Benares Hindu University and stood second in the University in B.Sc (Agriculture) and achieved 1st rank in M.Sc (Agriculture). He is also recipient of Gold Medal and Merit Scholarship in his Post Graduation studies. Taking over the reins of Nuziveedu Seeds (NSL) Limited in 1982, started by his illustrious father in 1973, he has nurtured and developed the NSL Group of companies, which is today a conglomerate of businesses in Seeds, Textiles, Sugars, Infrastructure and Renewable power. He is serving as the Chairman of NSL Group of Companies, and is currently the President of the National Seed Association of India (NSAI).
A widely travelled person, Dr Rao, toured several developed countries in Europe, USA and Japan, as member of Indian Seed Team under USAID project, to study the seed industry for adopting improved technologies in the domestic seed industry. Dr Rao has always been at forefront of discharging Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives and has established, Mandava Foundation, a charitable trust, that plays a key role in the development of Rural India by contributing in the sectors of Education, Health Care, and agricultural productivity initiatives etc.
His deep knowledge in anything connected with agriculture and endowed with sharp intellect to absorb and implement any new ideas combined with rare business acumen made him what he is today to embrace and discharge multifarious activities.
India’s field-crops seed industry is entering a decisive growth phase, moving beyond scale to technology-driven value creation. Hybrids dominate in cotton and maize, while rice is rapidly transitioning from varietal acreage to hybrids. Wheat, pulses, and oilseeds still rely heavily on open-pollinated varieties, offering large untapped opportunities for hybridization. The industry, valued at ~₹250–300 billion, is expanding at 10–12% CAGR, with growth propelled by mechanization, higher input intensity, climate variability, and demand for resilient genetics. Key commercial opportunities lie in four domains: (i) hybrid expansion in rice, mustard, millets, and pulses; (ii) climate-smart cultivars tolerant to drought, heat, submergence, and salinity; (iii) herbicide-tolerant systems supporting direct-seeded rice and conservation tillage in wheat; and (iv) pest-resilient hybrids addressing fall armyworm in maize and sucking pests in cotton. Breeding competitiveness depends on speed and precision. Platforms such as doubled haploids, rapid generation advancement, genomic selection, and UAV-based high-throughput phenotyping are increasingly integrated into commercial pipelines. Parallel investment in automated seed conditioning, optical sorting, polymer/biological coatings, and ISTA-aligned QA/QC labs strengthens product consistency. Distribution modernization—AI-driven demand planning, QR-based authentication, and loyalty systems tied to verified sell-out—offers margin expansion while curbing counterfeit seed leakage. The presentation will focus on the potential for investments in the Indian Field Crops seed sector and the opportunities for South-South Co-operation.
