Syngenta to produce vegetable seeds for exports

Syngenta Bangladesh plans to produce vegetable seeds in Bangladesh for export markets.

Syngenta would start producing long bean, okra and tomato seeds through contract growers in northern croplands of Bangladesh and start catering to international markets as well as sell locally, said Md Sazzadul Hasan, managing director of the agro-input marketing company.

The firm would start exploring export markets beginning with India in 2014, Hasan said at a press meet at its office in the city, which was organised on the occasion of the visit of a two-member team of Syngenta officials from India and Singapore.

“We’ve targeted to put in all our efforts to raise rice production by 20 percent by 2020 in this region as the world population would increase by a billion (from 7 billion to 8 billion) by 2025,” said Steven Hawkins, Asia Pacific regional director for Syngenta.

“A significant proportion of that growth in population would take place in Asia.”

Akshaya Kamath, Syngenta India’s managing director, emphasised on private entities, NGOs, and civil societies joining hands with the government to address the growing food safety concerns in Bangladesh while this country is doing so well in ensuring food security.

Syngenta is trying to introduce a whole range of crop protection tools, inputs and technologies in Bangladesh as well as in other agro-based economies in Asia where crop production has to be increased at nearly 2 percent annually just to keep pace with the regional population boom, speakers said.