Rural economies: The basis of food security - Case Studies

A new breed of entrepreneur
Finance is often the biggest hurdle preventing farmers in the developing world from accessing modern technology to increase yields and incomes. Microfinance can help growers obtain the loans they need to transform their farming and create effective businesses. Syngenta’s FRÍJOLNICA® program is helping Nicaraguan bean growers do just that, by enabling smallholders to obtain microfinance through a local finance partner.

Bean growers can buy seeds, herbicides and fertilizers and repay the loan when the bean harvest is sold. These technologies - combined with training and technical assistance from professional agronomists have helped many farmers achieve yield increases of up to 100 percent. As a result, many growers earned up to four times more than previously and have developed more sustainable businesses and livelihoods.

Better yields to improve livelihoods in Kenya
Declining, unreliable crop yields in the arid area of Laikipia in Kenya are threatening the livelihood of some 50,000 smallholder farmers who depend on agriculture to survive. Syngenta has developed a holistic training program to help these farmers boost yields and sustain their livelihoods.

Working in partnership with the Swiss College of Agriculture and the Centre for Training and Integrated Research in Arid and Semi-Arid Land (CETRAD), we have trained nearly 5,000 farmers in sustainable agricultural techniques and the safe use of crop protection products since the program began in 2006.

Crop yields for produce such as snow peas and potatoes have increased by up to 50 percent translating into significantly improved incomes. The amount of crops rejected by the distributor as sub-standard also fell from 50 percent to less than 5 percent. The increase in income has enabled some growers to open bank accounts.

Crop advice by phone
Timely, appropriate advice on agronomy solutions can help farmers make the best choices for their crops. But sharing information regularly over large, sometimes remote, areas is not always possible. To address this need, Syngenta has been working with Nokia LifeTools to set up an easy-to-use, graphical interface that works anywhere on Nokia cell phones. With this wireless application, Syngenta can provide growers with crop specific tips on pest and disease management.

Smallholders access this service through a subscription at a nominal cost of approximately $0.50 USD per week. Syngenta’s channel presence has increased in the selected geographies and will continue to increase, as Nokia expands LifeTools to another 17 states by end of 2010.

Fostering best practices
Syngenta sales manager Humphrey Kiruaye offers farmers in Kenya improved seeds combined with crop protection and training on best farming practice and safe use of products. In one case, Humphrey, a trained agronomist, advised a grower in central Kenya to build an irrigation water storage pond and use conservation agriculture to reduce the water needed for crops. It has now become a teaching center for the local community. The farm has diversified to include a chemical store and disposal unit, beehives to improve pollination and fish in the pond.

Breaking the cycle of poor productivity
Bad weather and sub-optimal harvests can result in a cycle of poor productivity and low incomes. This cycle is often difficult to break because it decreases cash available to spend on the following season’s seeds and crop protection. Since 2010, Syngenta in collaboration with Swiss Re, has been offering input-insurance to protect farmers from losses due to uncontrollable risks such as drought, flood, and other natural disasters.

Farmers pay a premium on inputs to protect them against poor conditions in a given year. If weather or pest conditions are bad, Syngenta will offer discounts on the following year’s inputs based on a local crop index.

The concept was launched in Australia and has primarily been used to insure large quantities of agricultural inputs. Syngenta plans to expand the program to insure smallholders who use smaller quantities crop protection products and seeds. The program is being developed for rice producers in Malaysia and banana plantations in the Philippines. The micro-insurance offer should help farmers through difficult times and crop losses until they can produce a successful harvest.

Protecting peppers in Spain
In Spain, we helped farmers introduce integrated pest management strategies for pepper in order to improve crop quality and combat growing resistance to insecticides. By supplementing the targeted use of insecticides with the BIOLINE® range of beneficial insects, the peppers were effectively protected and residue levels significantly reduced.

Water optimized corn
In 2011, Syngenta will be the first company to market corn hybrids that can use available moisture more efficiently, resulting in higher yields on drought stressed acres. Using modern breeding techniques, Syngenta was able to incorporate multiple genes from the corn genome that protect plants from water stress.

These corn plants will help growers preserve yields when moisture is limited due to lack of rain, poorly timed rains or limited-irrigation. This technology has demonstrated the potential to deliver 15 percent yield preservation under drought stress. At the same time, yield is not decreased under times of ideal rainfall. It also has the potential to reduce the cost of water in irrigated farming and provide a hedge against unexpected drought.