Using innovation and passion to serve farmers everywhere

Last week, I attended our annual Fields of Innovation event, hosted by Syngenta’s Vegetable Seeds business. After being fully virtual last year, our people enthusiastically welcomed back nearly 1,000 customers, breeders and partners to our field trials in The Netherlands, where they could see and feel (and taste!) our latest vegetable seed varieties.

The Netherlands plays a critical role in the global food chain, and this specific part of North Holland serves as a seed breeding hub, also known as “Seed Valley.” Around 40 percent of all vegetables eaten worldwide have their origin in this country. For Syngenta, our roots in the area go back more than 150 years, and it remains an important location for our flowers and vegetable seeds R&D.

Our breeders are passionate about serving customers, and you could feel that energy last week. We place growers at the heart of everything we do, and the team showed how we are using R&D to address their challenges – for example, creating new varieties that help farmers address labor shortages, extend shelf life of crops and meet consumers’ changing needs.

Product development specialist Klaudia Borbola highlighted our new sweet corn that offers delicious sweetness, crunchy texture and full-bodied flavor. It’s also an example of how we’ve strengthened our portfolio in recent years. This variety brings together Syngenta’s genetics that deliver good agronomic traits and excellent yields with Abbott & Cobb, which we acquired in 2018, that produced corn with great taste and texture. The combination of both sets of genetics resulted in a delicious, high-yielding crop. I sampled a few ears myself – and it certainly delivered on flavor.

Brassica portfolio manager Leszek Klimczak showed several cabbage varieties bred for size, including some that can grow as large as 17 kg. This makes hand harvesting physically demanding – and not the most desirable task, especially as agriculture faces labor shortages similar to those affecting other industries. To support long-term sustainability of farming operations, we bred a variety with upright leaves that sits off the ground and is well-suited for mechanical harvesting. This means farmers don’t risk losing crops in the field while looking for labor.

Food and value chain key account manager Lotfi Bani walked me through iStem, a new variety of cauliflower that has traditional sweet, nutty curds – but is bred with edible stems. It makes meal prep easier for busy consumers looking to eat more produce, and also means no part of the vegetable is thrown out, cutting down on food waste. This variety is already available with select retailers in the U.K. Lotfi and I also discussed burger leaf lettuce that has a round shape, designed to fit on a hamburger or sandwich bun, so there is no need to cut lettuce down to size. The thicker leaf also gives the lettuce longer shelf life and tolerates hot food well, maintaining its crunchiness to meet consumer demands.

Fields of Innovation was a great opportunity to demonstrate how Syngenta continues to invest in R&D to deliver for consumer needs and protect growers’ livelihoods, providing them with quality seeds and access to world-class innovation. Congratulations to our Vegetable Seeds team on a successful event – and thanks for helping to ensure access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food for people year-round.