Syngenta establishes Africa’s first seed care facility
Syngenta South Africa MD Antonie Delport discusses the opening of Africa's first seedcare institute. recorded:06.05.14. Camerawork and video editing: Nicholas Boyd.
South Africa has become home to Africa’s first Seed Care Institute as agribusiness Syngenta on Tuesday opened its eleventh research and development (R&D) facility, in Brits.
This comes as the continent’s challenges of feeding its own rapidly increasing population, 40% of which were currently undernourished, presented an opportunity to boost self-sufficiency by increasing the yields emerging from treated seeds.
The Africa Middle East (AME) Seed Care Institute, established at the company’s formulation, fill and packing plant, in the North West, aimed to stimulate the developing and testing of seed treatment and protection technologies to address the challenges of developing the continent’s complex and diverse agro ecosystems, crop preferences and farming systems, while enhancing productivity in a “more efficient and environment-friendly” manner.
“Faced with high input costs, a grower needs access to innovations in seed protection to safeguard the investments and increase crop production,” Syngenta South Africa MD Antonie Delport said, adding that the direct treatment of the seed would enable seed companies and growers to improve plant growth, prevent damages from pathogens and pests and achieve higher yields.
Seed treatment, which sees crop protection ingredients applied directly onto the seeds prior to sowing, was said to be an efficient, economical and the least environmentally intrusive measure in protecting crops from pests.
“Our seed specialists will work with smallholder and large commercial farmers, and seed companies to develop bespoke applications and treatments to control damaging and invasive plant pests and diseases,” Delport said, pointing out that seeds were the foundation of the world’s food supply.
The facility would be responsible for seed safety testing, seed preparations for trials, the analysis of treated seeds, recipe development and application and plantability testing, as well as “Take Care” training, which imparted safety information, and a stewardship programme, which would cover the A to Z of safety.
The AME facility, which would significantly expand Syngenta’s capabilities to serve its customers, which included seed companies, seed treaters and seed growers, would strengthen research efforts and create global synergies in a sector challenged by climate change, the loss of arable land and a lack of water.
“It [seed treatment] is a rapidly evolving science where R&D is key to maintaining competitiveness in the global seed marketplace,” Delport noted.
The global seed treatment market, currently valued at about $2.5-billion, was expected to grow to $4.5-billion by 2018.
Syngenta’s other facilities, which formed part of the Global Seedcare Institute Network, were based in Switzerland, the US, Canada, China, Ukraine and Argentina, with more facilities planned in Singapore and Mexico in 2014, Hungary, Russia and Australia in 2015 and Kenya and India in 2016, commented Global Seedcare Institute head Dr Franz Brandl.
The opening of the AME facility in South Africa formed part of Syngenta’s ‘The Good Growth Plan’, which would see the agribusiness deliver the required knowledge, tools, technology and services to over five-million growers and enable gains of 50% in Africa.
The Good Growth Plan was based on six elements, including making crops more efficient and increasing the average productivity of the world’s major crops by 20% without using more land, water or inputs.
Syngenta planned to “rescue” more farmland by improving the fertility of ten-million hectares of farmland on the brink of degradation, while enhancing biodiversity on five-million hectares of farmland.
Lastly, the plan aimed to empower 20-million smallholders and boost their productivity by 50%, train 20-million farmworkers on labour safety, particularly in developing countries, and strive to achieve fair labour conditions across the entire supply chain network worldwide.
The company, which invested over $1.4-billion into R&D globally in 2013, had earmarked investments of over $500-million to grow its portfolio and contribute to the transformation of agriculture on the continent.
Syngenta currently had over 27 000 employees – 5 000 of which were dedicated to R&D – in 90 countries.
Comments
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation