Cross-pollination between two different plant strains produces hybrid seeds. In order to grow commercial crops or sell them to consumers, hybrid seeds are developed scientifically. Therefore, hybridization typically focuses on traits such as color, size, and how well the harvested crop responds to transportation. Nutritional value is rarely a problem, yet hybrid seeds could be subpar compared to non-hybrid seeds. This highly selective and specific plant breeding is done to combine various traits from selected varieties in the resulting seed.
Hybrid seeds are currently becoming quite popular. This is due to the fact that the provided seeds are more efficient than other kinds of seeds. One of the most important advantages of hybrid seeds is their capacity to withstand illness. The basic explanation for this is that a disease-resistant plant may simply be mated with a plant that has minimal disease resistance, resulting in a disease-resistant plant. These plants are resistant to diseases such as blight and others. For instance, if one type of large cabbage is susceptible to disease while another is resistant but smaller, commercial agriculture can cross-pollinate to produce seeds that produce larger cabbages with greater disease resistance. Due to such benefits, according to OMR Research, the market is expected to witness significant growth at a CAGR of 8.5% during the forecast period (2022–2028).
Segments of the Market
The global hybrid seed market is segmented on the basis of crops, fruits and vegetable crops, seed treatment, and duration. On the basis of crops, the market is sub-segmented into cotton, corn, rice, millet, sunflower, and sorghum. On the basis of fruits and vegetable crops, the market is sub-segmented into tomato, okra, cabbage, gourds, chili, cauliflower, and others. On the basis of duration, the market is sub-segmented into short-term, medium-term, and long-term. On the basis of seed treatment, the market is sub-segmented into treated and untreated.
Recent Developments
Advanta Seeds Pty Ltd., Ampac Seed Co., Allied Seed, LLC, DLF Seeds A/S, Corteva Inc., CN Seeds Ltd., KWS SAAT SE & Co., Kaveri Seeds Co. Ltd., Groupe Limagrain, Informa plc, Rasi Seeds Pvt. Ltd., Rallis India Ltd., Mahyco Pvt. Ltd., Royal Barenbrug Group, SL-Agritech Corporation, Sakata Seed America, Syngenta Group, Vikima Seed A/S, Takii Seed, and Yuan Long Ping High-tech Agriculture Co., Ltd., among others are contributing to the market’s growth with several mergers and acquisitions, collaborations, new product launches, and investment activities. Some of the recent developments in the market include:
• In December 2021, Crystal Corp., a company that serves the Indian agriculture industry, announced plans to acquire four hybrid seeds—mustard, cotton, grain sorghum, and pearl millet—from Bayer, a global life sciences firm in India. According to Bayer, this acquisition will make the company a strong integrated agri-input market player and strengthen its field crop seed business.
• In January 2022, to increase agricultural production in Nigeria, the National Varieties Release Committee (NVRC) issued 49 high-yielding hybrid crop varieties. The hybrid crops include two rice hybrids, namely Arize TEJ Gold and Arize 6444 Gold; three durum wheat varieties, namely LACRI-WHIT 13D and LACRI-WHIT 12D; two high-protein-rich oats, SAMOAT 1 and SAMOAT 2; provitamin A hybrid cassava, UMUCASS 52, UMUCASS 53, and UMUCASS 54; and nineteen maize varieties.
Market Restraints
There are many market restraints that will hinder the growth. Hybrid seeds require a significant amount of time and money to prepare. This is due to the complicated nature of the hybrid seed production process. This also increases its cost, which results in low market demand. In addition, hybrid plants do not generate seeds that can be used to create plants of a similar variety. As a result, if a person needs to produce a comparable sort of hybrid vegetable or fruit again, they will have to go through the entire hybrid seed manufacturing procedure again. Furthermore, the market may face restraint due to their taste, since some people think that products from hybrid seeds are not good enough in taste.
Conclusion
The hybrid seed market is growing due to various factors, such as increasing technological advancements. For instance, Ankur Seeds, a pioneer in generating revolutionary hybrids in main vegetable crops, has successfully created a stable genetic male sterility system in Indian beans through mutation breeding and efficiently integrated it with a novel cross-pollination process for hybrid seed production. Ankur Seeds has effectively commercialized this hybrid technique by creating two protein-rich hybrids, Ankur Dolly and Ankur-427, which are making major contributions to the nutritional security of the vegetable world and have enormous potential to transform worldwide vegetable farming. Moreover, the growing population increases demand for agricultural products, emphasizing the need to improve output. According to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), the world population in 2018 was 7.63 billion people. According to the organization, the world population is expected to reach 8.19 billion by 2025 and roughly 8.55 billion by the end of 2030. This fast rise is driving farmers to use hybrid seeds and boost agricultural yields. Furthermore, the global decline of arable land encourages hybrid seed development.
However, the market may face some restraints due to various reasons. The primary issues influencing the hybrid seed industry include a lack of understanding among crop farmers about the benefits of utilizing hybrid seeds, a large dependence on farm-saved seeds, and the dominance of the informal seed supply chain. Low purchasing power, a lack of adequate new varieties, higher hybrid seed prices compared to traditional seeds, weak infrastructure, regulatory restrictions, costly R&D expenditures, and the reproduction and marketing of patented varieties are some of the other factors that are limiting market expansion.