b'SEEDS OF CHANGE, PART 2 BREEDING, FOOTPRINTS AND FUTURE PATHWAYSINSIDE THE SUSTAINABILITY TOOLBOXHOW LEADING SEED COMPANIES ARE BREEDING, OPERATING, AND INNOVATING TO MEET GLOBAL CLIMATE GOALS. BY: MARCEL BRUINSW hen you ask a plant breedersector, from breeding strategies to busi- New technologies are multiplying the what sustainability looks like,ness practices. breeders reach. Biotechnology, genome the answer increasingly comesIn the second part of our Seeds ofediting, and digital prediction tools now down to traits. Traits for tougher weather,Change series, Seed World Europe spokeallow Bayers teams to select more pre-for thriftier water use, for sturdier plantswith five leadersCristiane Loureno,cisely and faster than ever before. The that need fewer chemical crutches. Yetdirector, global sustainability & small- goal, Loureno explains, is to produce sustainability doesnt stop in the field. Itholder farmers at Bayer; Eduard Fit,more while restoring more. That means also depends on how seed companies runpresident of Semillas Fit; Jos R, sus- crops that better resist drought and dis-their own operationsfrom research sitestainable ag science advisor for RiceTec;ease, hybrids that use nitrogen more to supply chainsand how they trans- and Jason Allerding, global head, HSE,efficiently, and varieties that protect soil late innovation into measurable impact forsustainability & risk management seedsthrough shorter growth cycles or deeper farmers and the planet. for Syngentato explore how theserooting.companies are using science, technology,At RiceTec, the sustainability mindset TURNING COLLABORATIONand company culture to make agricultureis not new. Its embedded in our history, INTO ACTION both more productive and more respon- says R. From the start, we were breeding What makes these efforts particularlysible. hybrids that could thrive in direct-seeded powerful is that theyre not happening insystemsthat was sustainability before the isolation. Through the ISF EnvironmentalBREEDING FOR A CHANGINGword became mainstream.and Social Responsibility CoordinationPLANET R adds that those early decisions Group (ESR-CG), leading seed companiesAt Bayer, breeding for sustainabilityshaped the companys trajectory. We built are aligning on shared priorities, poolingmeans attacking complexity on multipledisease tolerance, strong roots, and seed knowledge, and presenting a unified voicefronts. It takes a broad range of traitsvigour into our hybrids long before climate on horizontal sustainability topics. Thisto tackle the challenges facing farmers,resilience became a buzzword. Today, association-driven collaboration reflects asays Loureno. Yield potential, climatethose traits are proving essential to help collective spirit: being stronger together,resilience, pest resistance, and nutritionalfarmers transition toward Direct Seeded amplifying impact, and ensuring that sus- valuewhile reducing fertilizer andRice (DSR)a system that reduces water tainability becomes embedded across theinput needsall of it matters. use, methane emissions, and labour.30ISEED WORLD EUROPEISEEDWORLD.COM/EUROPE | FEBRUARY 2026'