East-West Seed topped the 2019 South and Southeast Asia (SSEA) Seed Index, which evaluates seed companies in terms of their accessibility, especially to small farmers.
“We are extremely honored by this achievement. East-West Seed has always been synonymous with serving smallholder farmers since it was founded in 1982 and it is evident in everything we do to this day,” East-West President and Chief Executive Officer Bert van der Feltz said in a statement.
Netherlands-based Access to Seeds Foundation launched the second index, which evaluated 24 companies that operate in South and Southeast Asia.
In the first seed index in 2016, East-West Seed ranked first in the Global Vegetable and East Africa indices.
Access to Seeds Foundation Executive Director Ido Verhagen said the evaluation is necessary to see where companies should improve in order to serve farmers better.
“Seed companies play a key role in supporting smallholder farmer productivity. By measuring and comparing their performance, companies can see where improvements can be made to serve farmers better. Research agencies or investors interested in reaching smallholders use our research to identify companies to partner with,” Mr. Verhagen said.
According to Access to Seeds, East-West Seed demonstrates leadership as it has a breeding program for a large number of crops. The foundation stated that East-West Seed’s “high score in Seed Production can be attributed to its collaboration with smallholder farmers, who account for 95% of its production.”
East-West Seed distributes seeds for carrot, cabbage, cauliflower, eggplant, lettuce, melon, okra, pepper, pumpkin, squash and tomato.
“We see a growing attention for enabling small farmers to cope with the effects of climate change. This makes the Index very timely because seed companies play a key role in delivering new tools and technologies in the hands of smallholder farmers,” Coosje Hoogendoorn, senior research lead of Access to Seeds, said.
“Findings presented by the Index feed the dialogue on how the seed industry can support a growing food production in the world while remaining within planetary boundaries and reduce climate change impact,” she added. — R.J.N. Ignacio
