Innovation and science solutions company DuPont has committed to invest R62-million in its research and development (R&D) hub in Delmas, Mpumalanga, by 2017.
The R&D hub was established by DuPont’s commercial and research business DuPont Pioneer Hi-Bred and is the first major R&D hub in Africa, DuPont sub-Saharan Africa regional leader Richard Okine told Engineering News at a media briefing in Johannesburg, last month.
The hub, which will serve as the core DuPont Africa regional technology centre, focuses on agribusiness for the African region and will help support development activities in the Delmas region, extending throughout South Africa and Southern Africa.
“Although science is global, the implementation is local and we have to apply science to meet the local needs. We are making large investments in Africa with a strong focus on the region. We hope the hub will create research and inventions that are localised. The goal is to have a highly productive R&D community, making significant advances to meet the needs of the continent,” Okine said.
Eventually, R&D needs to be used to get the fundamentals of agriculture in place and to grow and develop local talent for the sector, he added.
The hub will accelerate seed product development for farmers in Africa and help them better manage key agronomic challenges, including pest and disease pressure, climate volatility and nutrient-depleted soils.
South African field crop seed producers and suppliers Pannar Seed, which was acquired by DuPont last year, will use the R&D hub, together with DuPont Pioneer, to drive R&D product pipelines for the companies, capitalising on complementary germplasm pools and developing innovative solutions for customers of both brands.
The hub also includes the first private insectary in Africa, which will raise and house insects that pose challenges to local crop production for scientific purposes.
DuPont Pioneer has similar hubs in Brazil, India and China.
Meanwhile, DuPont will also invest $2-million over the next two years to help African countries with their agriculture extension programmes and train farmers to increase their output and help improve farming efficiency.