Making agriculture sexy again

Filipinos cannot live without rice.

Morning, noon and nighttime, rice will most likely be present in a typical Filipino’s home and that high consumption of the staple presents both an opportunity and a hurdle for the country.

A hurdle because local demand of the population of some 100 million has long exceeded what the country can actually produce, thus government leaders struggle to implement policies that will balance the sometimes competing interests of the rice stakeholders, from the farmers to the traders and finally, the consumers.

On the flip side, it is also an opportunity for agriculture and science companies such as Corteva Agriscience to build a business in the Philippines.

Initially, its business here is centered around increasing the use of hybrid rice seeds that promise high yields and therefore increased profit for the Filipino rice farmers, who number among the poorest in the country.

Corteva, whose mission is to “enrich the lives of those who produce and those who consume, ensuring progress for generations to come,” has already invested in its Corteva EduFarm in Tarlac province to showcase the proof of the science behind its claims about the benefits of hybrid rice and corn.

Corteva was the agriculture division of DowDuPont before it became an independent company following the listing of its shares on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in June, thus creating a stand-alone, pure-play agriculture company with leading positions in seed technologies, crop protection and digital agriculture.

It combines the strengths of DuPont Pioneer, DuPont Crop Protection and Dow AgroSciences, thus provides growers around the world with a complete portfolio of product lines from seeds to crop protection.

Peter Ford, Corteva Asia-Pacific president, said in a recent briefing in New York with select journalists from Asia that the region presented a growth market where the company could be more aggressive.

According to Ford, the Asia-Pacific region is the smallest of the four regions where Corteva is present, accounting for just 10 percent of the global turnover.

But it is the fastest growing, given the nature of the vast region, and Corteva expects Asia-Pacific, which covers 16 countries including giants India and China, to continue to outgrow the larger, more established regions in Corteva’s coverage.

Corteva estimates that North America accounts for a little over half of annual turnover, Europe and Latin America both contributing 20 percent and the balance coming from Asia.

At present, the company has concentrated its efforts on its home market and the rest of the Americas, but now plans to cover Asia as part of its growth strategy, recognizing that the region is young, increasing in number and becoming more affluent, and are already large consumers of staples such as rice.

Corteva chief executive James Collins said in a briefing following the official listing of Corteva on the NYSE that Asia represented a “strong source of growth” for the company, thus it was building for the company’s future.

“We do not see anything but strong growth there over the next five years,” Collins said. “Rice is Asia.”

This was also the reason behind Corteva’s decision to have a direct presence in the region through its Asia-Pacific office based in Singapore that opened officially in May this year.

The investments in the region include the establishment of a global analysis center of excellence and a new research and development lab, as well as a collaboration strategy designed to encourage the further development of the Asia-Pacific agri-technology startup ecosystem.

In the Philippines in particular, Ford said the hybrid rice project sought to address another issue—the increasing age of farmers and the lack of younger Filipinos wanting to follow in their parents’ or the elder generation’s footsteps in the farms.

He said this twin problem could be addressed by making rice farming more profitable and to define labor-saving opportunities, including the use of hybrid rice, which promised more output per hectare than the usual inbred rice varieties still favored by a good number of rice farmers in the country.

To further demonstrate its long-term commitment to the rice industry, Corteva last year forged a partnership with the Los Baños-based International Rice Research Institute (Irri) to develop advanced rice technologies and programs. It is part of the thrust of the two institutions to improve the quality and quantity of global rice production.

Ford said last year that the shared goal for the partnership was to help rice farmers become more productive and sustainable.

“Our collaboration will allow us to offer farmers a broader suite of high-performing products and effective science-based innovations that will optimize yield and crop quality. Partnerships such as this create the power of scale and will drive positive change for rice farmers,” he said.

Corteva noted that rice was the world’s most important staple food, directly feeding more people than other crops such as wheat and corn.

To meet the demand of a growing global population, rice production needs to dramatically increase by 25 percent over the next 25 years. Yet increased competition for dwindling resources such as land and water, unpredictable climates, farm labor shortages and lack of technical expertise were some of the issues threatening the future of rice, Corteva said.

With the agreement, both parties would have access to advanced technologies, including Irri’s germplasm, hybrid and inbred rice programs and Corteva Agriscience’s precision breeding technologies. The partnership seeks to improve the genetic outcomes of breeding programs, encourage sustainable rice cultivation, and develop new rice varieties that deliver higher yields and are more resilient to various stresses.

The agreement was formalized at the 5th International Rice Congress in Singapore, organized by Irri.

In the Philippines, Ford said Corteva was particularly excited about the use of its direct seeded rice technology that claimed to reduce water consumption in the farm, a daunting challenge in the Philippines where most farms are rain-fed, not irrigated.

Corteva is likewise bullish on the increased use of digital tools to help increase farming output, in that way help entice younger generations to go back to the farm, since it will no longer be as labor-intensive as when their parents or grandparents were working the farm.

As Ford said, the challenge and the opportunity lie in making agriculture sexy again.

“We are going to have to,” Ford added.