b'SEEDS OF CHANGE, PART I BALANCING PRODUCTIVITY AND PLANETHOW LEADING SEED COMPANIES ARE REDEFINING YIELD TO MEAN EFFICIENCY, RESILIENCE, AND VALUENOT JUST VOLUME. BY: MARCEL BRUINSF or decades, the equation for progressSeed World Europe spoke with five lead-30% lower environmental impact in agriculture was simple: more yieldersCristiane Loureno, director, globalfrom crop-protection products.meant more success. Tonnes per hec- sustainability & smallholder farmers atEmpower 100 million smallholder tare, bushels per acre, kilograms per plantBayer; Eduard Fit, president of Semillasfarmers in low- and middle-incomethese were the universal scorecards ofFit; Jos R, sustainable ag science advi- countries.breeding achievement. But as climatesor for RiceTec; and Jason Allerding, global25% improvement in water-use shocks, resource scarcity, and biodiversityhead, HSE, sustainability & risk manage- efficiency through the transformation decline reshape global farming, the equa- ment seeds for Syngentaabout how theyof rice systems, particularly in Asia.tion has expanded. Yield still matters, butare balancing yield goals with environmen- Higher crop yields themselves pres-now so do the litres of water used to grow it,tal responsibility, and how plant breedingent an environmental benefit by reducing the emissions behind it, and the livelihoodscan influence sustainability far beyond thethe need for additional land cultivation, sustained by it. field. Loureno adds. But the ultimate aim is not just to produce more; its to produce more A SHARED PLATFORM FORBEYOND YIELDTHE NEWwith less and restore more.COLLABORATION PRIORITIES Bayers breeding and technology pipe-Across the seed sector, companies areWhen Loureno describes Bayers globalline illustrates what that means in practice. rewriting the definition of productivity.sustainability agenda, she begins not withThe Ansal tomato, with extended shelf life, Many of them collaborate through thegenetics but with regeneration. At Bayer,directly tackles food loss and waste; Direct Environmental and Social Responsibilitywe believe we can leverage our global pres- Seeded Rice (DSR) slashes water use and Coordination Group (ESR-CG) of theence and leadership in agriculture to helpmethane emissions; CoverCress, a rota-International Seed Federation (ISF)adrive a transition to regenerative agricul- tional oilseed for biofuel, brings soil bene-platform that connects competitors aroundture. Our ambition is to scale regenerativefits and does not compete with food crops. shared sustainability challenges and oppor- agriculture on more than 400 million acresTogether, these innovations show that yield tunities. By aligning their efforts, theseglobally by the middle of the next decade,and footprint reduction can coexistand companies aim to be stronger and moreshe says. That ambition has been translatedeven reinforce each other.impactful together than they could beinto a concrete set of 2030 targets: For Fit, sustainability begins with a alone, ensuring that sustainability becomes30% reduction in on-field green- farmers balance sheet. Weve spent dec-a core part of seed innovation rather thanhouse-gas emissions per unit of cropades increasing yield, he says. But we an afterthought. produced. also need to reduce the resources that go 18ISEED WORLD EUROPEISEEDWORLD.COM/EUROPE | NOVEMBER 2025'