Proceedings of the Fifth Asian Regional Maize Workshop - Search ...

Table 2.
Products
Pioneer varieties and products in Thailand (Marketed by PHT).
Year
1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993
Grain P 6181
Corn P 72 P 72 P72 P 72
P 28 P 28 P 28 P 28 P 28 P 28 P 28 P 28
P 98 P 98 P 98 P 98
P 76 P 76 P 76 P 76 P 76
P 94 P 94
P 50 P 50 P 50 P50
P 52 P 52 P 52
P64 P64 P 64
P48
P 56
Baby Corn P 28 P 28 P 28 P 28 P 28 P 28 P 28
Sorghum P 8199 P 8244 P 8244 P 8244
W 8310
8 81 8.81 8 81 8 81 881
Sorghum
SUdan grass P988 P 988 P 988 P988 P988
OUr philosophy to handle seed business is to provide superior products (leader
products) to the farmers. Table 2 shows that PHT has marketed various hybrids to Thai
farmers since 1985. We dropped P 6181 from the market and replaced it with P 3272, the
first hybrid from POeT. Pioneer has a very good name from this hybrid in terms of yield
and tolerance to drought.
The adoption of hybrid corn by the Thai farmers was very slow in the early 1980's but
has increased since 1987 (Fig. 1). Not only has the response of the farmers to hybrid
corn been very positive, but also the competitiveness among seed companies has warmed up.
Pioneer has been conservative in terms of increasing sales volume and investment. It
takes time to let the products talk. However, we do believe that we will achieve our
ultimate target very soon.
Conclusion
Thailand has much space for expansion of hybrid corn. We have an additional 10,000 t
of hybrid corn seed waiting to replace 8uwan 1. The key for success will depend on how we
compete with the strong companies like CP, which has developed well sustained enterprises.
Today, Thai farmers are ready to adopt new technologies for increasing yield (Table
3). They need single cross hybrids with high yield potential and are willing to pay more
for these. At present Pioneer has enough germplasm suitable to the development of
excellent hybrids. Moreover, we have the strong support of Pioneer Worldwide plus the
aggressive Pioneer team in Thailand. Well, we are ready to go with the leader! Thank
you.
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