Syngenta leaders share new cereals strategy, integrated approach

Date:03-29-2012


Syngenta intends to transform cereals production worldwide – by creating innovative solutions that set unprecedented standards for yield, quality and sustainability. This new vision was outlined by members of the Syngenta cereals leadership team during a winter customer conference. 
 
"Syngenta is uniquely positioned to create value for cereal growers around the globe,” said Karsten Neuffer, head, Syngenta Cereals Global. “We have a global reach, downstream connectivity and proximity with growers to intimately understand and address their needs. And we have unique portfolio breadth and a leading footprint – across seeds, seed care, and crop protection – that enables us to innovate and deliver integrated solutions.”
 
To successfully meet these needs and achieve these goals, Syngenta has made a strategic decision to combine its commercial operations worldwide, while refocusing research and development efforts around crop and grower needs. This new, integrated approach enables Syngenta to think like a grower and better serve customer needs.
 
"In this new strategy, our seeds, seed care and crop protection businesses will be working closely together to develop solutions for growers using our various technologies in a more integrated way,” said Norm Dreger, head, Syngenta Cereals North America. “We are now taking a crop- and grower-centric view on value creation. We will innovate across product categories, agronomy and business models to deliver integrated and sustainable solutions at scale that are tailored to the complex needs of growers around the world.”
 
Focused R&D, partnerships

With the global population expected to reach 9 billion by the year 2050, Syngenta research and development efforts are geared toward creating more efficiencies in farming, including product and agronomic solutions.
 
"Syngenta is committed to providing total crop solutions – from seeds through crop protection and beyond – to help produce more from fewer inputs and less land,” said Corey Huck, head, Syngenta key account management. “We are also dedicated to sharing knowledge and exploring new partnerships to raise agronomy skills and expertise for our growers.”
 
Syngenta continues to partner with a broad network of seed associates throughout North America who are dedicated to producing high quality, certified seed to meet the growing global wheat demand. 
 
"Our Syngenta cereals associates are spread across multiple geographies to help produce wheat varieties with characteristics that address regional needs, including disease and insect tolerance,” explained Paul Morano, head, cereals key account management, Syngenta.
 
To enable seed associates to deliver varieties that address the needs of their growers, Syngenta has accelerated its investment in cereals research, making it a priority crop for the company.
 
"We have tripled our investments in marker and doubled haploid technologies in the United States,” explained Rollie Sears, North American cereals R&D manager for Syngenta. “Syngenta is the first company to market a wheat variety developed through doubled haploid breeding, which cuts the breeding cycle in half from 10-12 years to six to seven years. We are also leading the industry with our deep breeding technology toolbox that includes marker assisted recurrent selection, native trait stacks, hybridization and biotechnology. Growers are already seeing benefits of this effort with 13 new wheat varieties introduced this year and 19 more in pre-commercial traits.”
 
In addition to being the leading wheat seed production company in North America, Syngenta offers cereal growers a top-performing portfolio of seed treatment and crop protection products and localized service from a knowledgeable agronomy and sales team.    
 
"Through our new, integrated strategy, we’re focused on approaching grower challenges with comprehensive know-how in agronomy, chemicals, seeds and adjacent technologies – all focused on meeting grower needs,” concluded David Morgan, president, Syngenta Seeds.