Nyon, Switzerland (June 11, 2020) – The International Seed Federation (ISF) held a three-day virtual Congress this week with a discussion about the outlook for the global seed industry during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The opening ceremony for the Congress was held June 8.

“We were thrilled by the response from attendees, the great questions that were asked, and the insight and perspective shared by our speakers,” says ISF Communications Manager Francine Sayoc.

The virtual Congress replaced the event that was scheduled to be held this week in South Africa but rescheduled due to the COVID-19 crisis. Instead, plans are underway for South Africa to host the World Seed Congress in 2022.

The ISF plans to hold the 2021 World Seed Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

Global Seed Industry Responds To COVID-19

Marco van Leeuwen


Usha Barwale Zehr


David Malan


Theo de Jager

During a session June 9, Rijk Zwaan Managing Director Marco van Leeuwen said having the seed industry classified as an essential service has helped keep seed moving around the world.

“After very efficient interventions, it was very interesting to see how governments all over world realized the importance of seed for food supplies,” van Leeuwen says.

A lack of labor capacity is a potential risk for agricultural work such as planting, harvesting, and packing in addition to seed production work including pollination, van Leeuwen says.

"We expect this to be a reality for at least the coming six months," he says. "Farmers will be striving even more for automation and mechanization in order to reduce their dependency on labor."

Despite changes such as focusing on local production, van Leeuwen says seed breeding and trade is "a very global business."

"We have to emphasize for a world where the best quality seed is accessible to all and where we can provide seed choice for all farmers, we have to keep this same world flat and borders open," van Leeuwen says. "We are striving for an inclusive world where best quality seed is accessible to all."

Maintaining operations and planting seeds hasn’t always been easy in places such as India, says Usha Barwale Zehr, MAHYCO director and chief technology officer.

"The timing of the lockdown could not have been any worse," Zehr explains. "Farmers were harvesting their winter crops. The seed industry was busy with procurement of production material and operating processing plants at full capacity to get seed ready for June planting."

She adds that immediately there was a drastic reduction in the workforce.

"Plants started operating at less than 50% capacity," Zehr says. "The highways became deserted. This meant no trucks or movement of goods to the plant or to the market. With a lot of effort, despite agriculture being essential, we managed to get permissions needed for operations and continued activities at much lesser capacities."

Farmers have been showing their resilience through the challenges, Zehr says.

“Farming at its core always has challenges," she says. "It can rain too much or not enough, too early or too late. Farmers during these challenging times are showing how they adapt to new tools and technologies by using their cell phones to carry on with a lot of their agricultural activities. For the seed sector, it presents opportunities in how we use these tools to connect with our customers. While we continue to thrive and value the in-person relationship, we will have to take to heart that for the next 18 months we will have to innovate and look into the use of digital tools to conduct our business."

Zehr notes research activities could be affected by the situation along with a shift in cropping patterns where farmers move to different crops based on risks or pricing for commodities.

"The current situation continues to pose challenges for us for the near future in terms of how we progress on our research activities with the travel restrictions, movements of material, and so forth," Zehr says. "While we are doing everything we can, there is a possibility to see a small dip in what we accomplish in the near term."

The economic impact in South Africa has been severe since March, says David Malan, Klein Karoo Seed Production managing director.

"In a country where unemployment is already very high, we had huge increases in joblessness and also in poverty," Malan says. "This will take a long time to recover."

Throughout the crisis, Malan points out seed companies could continue as critical and essential businesses.

"Nobody could predict the extent of which this lockdown was doing to be," Malan says. "By trial and error, we had to find our way and navigate our way through this and we managed."

He explains travel was disrupted, in particular for seed production where clients typically visit production sites to check for diseases and make crop estimates.

"This is causing a lot of anxiety because they could not do that," Malan says.

Technology is the biggest opportunity going forward, Malan says.

"Virtual meetings, video conferences, and congresses that will be tools we use all the time now," Malan says. "Technology in seed production - drone technology, satellite imagery - will be used to create better reports and better visual material so we can create trust with our clients about the quality and integrity of the seed we produce for them even though they won’t be able to visit."

The seed industry has demonstrated its value in the food supply chain, Malan adds.

"The South African seed industry is very resilient and able to adapt to changing conditions and even a crisis like this," Malan says. "Seed businesses will definitely survive despite the economic downturn."

Lockdowns forced everyone back to basics and review what is essential, says Theo de Jager, World Farmers Organization president. It has been important for farmers to continue working, he adds.

“We were allowed to continue with business, although it was not business as usual,” de Jager says. “Our value chains were severely disrupted. It taught us that we can live without most things we deemed important, but we cannot live without food and water. That is the basis of all life."

A new debate has opened about the role and importance of farmers, food, and nutrition, de Jager says.

"In many areas of the world, such as here in Africa, the Coronavirus is not the biggest monster of our time," de Jager says. "It is hunger."

More needs to be produced on less and with less, he says.

"We need to create wealth from the soil," de Jager says. "It is so important that we have the kinds of seeds that will yield the best harvest, region by region, area by area. There is no way to meet the challenges of our time and tomorrow if the answers we seek are not science based."

European and South American Perspective

Franck Berger

Arnold Puech d’Alissac


Lorena Basso


Arnaud Petit

During a second session on June 9, Limagrain Vegetable Seeds CEO Franck Berger said seed companies have been part of essential pieces of activity in the food chain. Most seed company workers in France, for example, have continued to work on site or remotely through the crisis, Berger says.

The seed sector has been extremely resilient, Berger adds.

"Really what was striking is the level of engagement, how much people really wanted to get the job done," he says. "They wanted to get the job done not only because it was a necessity, but because they were fulfilling an essential part of the food chain. The degree of engagement of the people working for our companies has been extremely important."

Berger notes being able to continue to move seed across borders has been an another critical aspect of the crisis.

"The seed business is global by nature but is also local by essence," Berger says. "The seed needs to reach the place where it will be used and planted. Making sure these movements can continue is extremely important. People have a renewed appreciation for everything done to produce the food they need to feed themselves and their families. The food chain is complex, is long, and needs all the pieces to work together in very good harmony. If food reaches them, it is because people have put a lot of hard work and energy into this."

COVID-19 has put the food supply chain in trouble, in some countries more than others, says Arnold Puech d’Alissac, World Farmers’ Organization treasurer and a farmer in France.

"Farmers have been for the most part resilient in the face of this crisis,” Puech d’Alissac says. “It’s important to have different sources of production. We need to keep an open world for seed to move. It can be a solution to find production from somewhere else in the world."

The mandatory quarantine went into effect March 19 at a time when companies and farmers were in the middle of harvest, says Lorena Basso, president, Basso Semillas and Asociación Semilleros Argentinos (ASA)

She says they worked together with the government to ensure a supply of seed for next season. Her company has production fields spread across four towns.

"Due to the increase in cases of COVID-19, the authorities decided to close borders," Basso says. "We couldn't harvest. We needed to be quick to contact the authorities so we could work and produce without put our workers or others at risk."

She says established relationships between seed associations and the government helped in continuing operations.

“We solve that with the relationships we had built,” Basso says. “We think those relationships have to be built on trust.”

Basso adds companies should be flexible enough to adapt to the new reality.

The future is bright as the demand for food will likely continue to increase, notes Arnaud Petit, International Grains Council (IGC) executive director.

"The grains sector has good days in front of the COVID-19 crisis," Petit says. "Food demand will not go down. It's good news for the seed sector and grain sector that food security is still relevant."

Continuing To Tell The Story of Agriculture

Neal Gutterson


Vicente Navarro


Jeff Rowe


Louise Fresco

During a session June 10, Corteva Agriscience Chief Technology Officer Neal Gutterson said the agriculture industry is going through an unprecedented time. Business models are changing and technology is driving change, Gutterson says.

Changing consumer demands have had the biggest impact on the industry, he adds.

"The ability of farmers to produce has barely been impacted," Gutterson says. "It is an incredibly resilient industry and an incredibly resilient set of customers that we serve. We’ve seen some really wild swings in demand. Part of that has been impacted just by the distribution channels. The overall needs of farmers addressing diseases and pests, weather challenges, climate change has been largely unchanged by the pandemic."

The consumer wants to change for the better, says Vicente Navarro, BASF Vegetable Seed senior vice president.

"When our growers, our customers, the consumer are changing, we as an industry need as well to change," he says. "Like never before, we are reminded of the critical nature of our industry. The world’s population needs nutrition and even with quarantines and social distancing, people need to eat. The access to the food supply is essential. Our customers need our help to feed the world."

Changing consumer values are shaping the food industry in real time, Navarro says.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the world as we know it," he says. "People are living differently, are buying differently, and in many cases are also thinking differently. Consumers are looking at the products that we sell through a different and fresh lenses. The new habits formed now will for sure endure beyond the crisis and will change permanently what we value, what we buy, and where we buy it, but also how we live and how we work."

Science needs to be part of the solution, Navarro notes.

The crisis has been a reminder of how little many people know about where their food comes from, says Jeff Rowe, Syngenta Global Seeds president.

“Our food supply is not a given,” Rowe says. “Unfortunately, it’s a lesson that millions of people in the developing world know all too well. Having access to high quality seed to plant really does matter. Having access to safe and reliable crop protection systems really does matter. Farmers and the millions of people working in the food supply chain and grocery stores really do matter."

Rowe says the industry needs to produce not just enough food, but quality and nutrition is needed while producing a way that is kinder to the planet.

"When crops fail in the developing world, lives are ruined or lost," Rowe says. "The reality is that without technology advancements like molecular breeding, biotechnology, robust crop protection millions in our developed world wouldn’t have enough food to eat either. We need to use all the technology that is available to us. As people experience a moment of fear of what food insecurity could feel like, this will help us to have more informed and better discussions about technology in agriculture. Making sure we have enough nutrition for everyone is as important as keeping everyone safe from a virus like COVID-19."

Rowe says regulations need to be science based given how many lives are at stake. However, he notes a portion of the population does not trust science. Therefore, Rowe says members of the agriculture community have a responsibility to listen to concerns and tell their story in a more effective way.

"Anti-science is dangerous," Rowe says. "If it holds us back, we risk losing the opportunity we have to improve the lives not just of farmers but everyone on the planet."

The public does not often think about what it takes to put seed in the ground, says Louise Fresco, Wageningen University & Research President of the Executive Board.

"The public at large often thinks about farming after the seed has been put into the field," Fresco says. "The seed is invisible because people do not realize very often how much science is embedded in the single seed that is planted."

While many people have a real appreciation of at least some science, Fresco says a backdrop of suspicion, unease, and fear of science remains, especially with science related to genetics. That backdrop contributes to a complex regulatory landscape, she says.

Fresco adds precision agriculture and precision breeding helps in the regulatory debate.

"We are much better to control the conditions of developing seeds and developing the genetic makeup of wanted traits in seeds as well as the environment in which the seed comes to full fruition and the plant can really work well and produce," Fresco says. "That precision is helped by big data, mechanization and sensors that we did not have in the past. Precision is here to stay and it is important in the debate about innovation to make clear to everybody the road to better regulation is helped by precision. We can trace and follow any problems, more so than before."

The strength and resilience of the food system is in its diversity, Fresco explains.

She feels optimistic about the seed sector given its value, yet warns that it could be handicapped by protectionism.

"It is the most vibrant of all the sectors," Fresco says. "It is an extremely valuable sector. If anything needs to travel freely in this world, it really is seed. Seed is so important. It is the beginning of agriculture. Without seed, there is no agriculture."

Written by Chris Lusvardi, Seed Today editor