The care of our products extends beyond the factory gate, as we act to ensure that growers in every part of the world use them in a way that does not harm people or the environment.

Product stewardship goes beyond the rigorous regulations Syngenta must meet to register a product. We need to ensure that once crop protection and biotechnology products are no longer in our direct control, they are used safely without harming people or the environment. There is a strong business case, too: we can only sustain our business if our products are used safely.

Local solutions
Syngenta monitors products prior to and after they reach the market. Our stewardship approach is locally-driven and flexible, tailored to meet local conditions and farming methods.

Syngenta goes beyond providing label information to work with growers, equipping and training them to use our products safely.

Surveys, audits and inspections showed the efforts of Syngenta and our partners are
paying off:

• In Nicaragua, training programs on the safe use of crop protection products helped halve occupational poisoning incidents (Survey 1995 to 2002).
• Training schemes in India have improved good sprayer maintenance from 84 to 97 per cent while good hygiene practices rose from 68 to 90 per cent.
• Farmers completing Syngentas programs in Mexico assessed their knowledge of safe crop protection product use to have improved from 31 per cent to 90 per cent. This program has now trained over 400,000 farmers through 13,000 sessions and 10,000 field demonstrations.

Syngentas approach to managing packaging waste begins with reducing it at source developing reusable containers, making containers from recyclable materials and supporting collection and recycling programs.

Industry association
As an industry leader, Syngenta is actively involved in the stewardship activities of the industry association, CropLife International. These comprise global safe use programs and farmer training, focusing on Africa, South America and Asia. Together with the World Bank/Global Environment Facility, CropLife companies are working on a multi-year program to dispose of obsolete stocks in Africa.
For more detailed information, please see the booklet: The responsible stewardship of our crop protection products.

Biotechnology
Syngenta believes that the potential of new technologies in agriculture, including biotechnology, will become steadily more significant to meet the demand for more and better food globally.

This is a topic that continues to evoke strong emotions, so a genuine commitment to transparency and a frank and inclusive dialogue are very important.

We support growers using our genetically enhanced seeds and crop protection products with pest resistance management programs, designed to ensure the long-term efficacy of our products.

In the USA, farmers have been offered a Syngenta program that addresses refuge requirements, pest resistance monitoring, a compliance assurance program and on-farm assessments.
A grower survey showed over 90 per cent compliance to insect resistance strategies in 2003, and no resistant insects have been detected.

Beyond regulation
It is clear that robust and harmonized regulatory systems based on sound science will be crucial to ensure the responsible adoption of these technologies and foster consumer confidence.

Syngenta has responded to the new Biosafety Protocol, an international, legally binding set of guidelines, by going beyond its requirements to develop procedures for work with genetically enhanced seeds. The new Protocol provides a framework for transferring genetically enhanced organisms between countries. Syngenta will implement this system across all countries where it operates, regardless of whether a particular country is a signatory to the Protocol.