Three leading seed companies are changing the trajectory for smallholder farmers in parts of Africa and South Africa. Their goal is simple, to provide farmers with the best genetics so that they can be as successful and sustainably profitable as possible in growing the crops the markets request.
The seed company known as Limagrain Zaad South Africa, is a joint venture combining the forces of Limagrain Group, Zaad Holdings, and Seed Co.
Limagrain Group is a French farmer-owned cooperative created and led by farmers in the Auvergne region of France, and the fourth largest seed company in the world. Seed Co is the leading seed company on the continent of Africa, with a significant investment in breeding for African farmers.
Meanwhile, Zaad Holdings develops a broad range of agronomy, forage and vegetable seeds into mainly Africa, Europe and other emerging international markets.
In an interview with Food For Mzansi, group non-executive director and managing director of Limagrain Africa, Frédéric Savin talks about how their company is improving the yields of smallholder farmers in Africa.
Tell us a bit about Limagrain.
Limagrain is a French company owned by French farmers. It’s basically a cooperative with about 1500 farmers. We operate in 60 countries and have about 10 000 employees.
I started working at Limagrain 35 years ago. When I finished university, my first job was at Limagrain. Back then I was in vegetable selectivity for almost 15 years. We are No 1 in this selectivity worldwide. Then I moved to the field crop activities (cereals and sunflowers etc).
How are you changing the way farmers farm?
Limagrain has not only positively impacted agriculture in France but in many places in the world, including Africa. We have been operating in Africa for 30 years in vegetable activity and about 10 years in field crop activity.
Wherever we operate, we bring agility and solutions to farmers. For instance, in Europe, there is a big disease that is destroying crops and Limagrain was the first to bring resistance to this disease. Because of that, we are leading the market.
In Africa, we have been working on fall armyworm, a big problem in tropical Africa. In South Africa, farmers are using genetically modified (GM) crops but in tropical Africa, they don’t want GM so we have to find another solution for them. So yeah, that’s our job, we are trying to increase farmer yields and introduce disease resistance.
Your expansion into Africa, how did that transpire?
We started in Africa by bringing the genetics that we have in India and Thailand. This was to check if it could be suitable for the farmers in Africa. We found that some of them we can use because they ensure an early yield.
But now we understand the continent and know that farmers need disease resistance. That is how we are bringing solutions to farmers. I love our project in Africa.
How do you see the future of agriculture in Africa and the role of Limagrain?
I am very optimistic about the future. I know that change will be too slow because the situation in Africa is very different from the one that you have in Europe, Brazil, or even China.
In Africa, you have very small farmers that need training or education to farm. There is no need to bring them seeds that they can’t use. You must bring the seed to them and train them.
So it takes time because you have to train millions of farmers. We hope that we can quickly help the farmers to grow and feed the growing population in Africa. So I’m very optimistic.
I mean, with the population that you have in Africa, you cannot rely on imports, the way you do today. It’s going to be costly, and it’s not sustainable at all. So you have to produce locally to feed the population locally.
What is your message to farmers in Africa?
Farmers in Africa and farmers in South Africa, these are two different worlds.
Because of what happened with the COVID situation and the war in Ukraine, the commodity price increased a lot. This is good news for farmers and for the industry in South Africa but this has an impact on the consumer.
So it is not because of the farmers that food prices are increasing, it is because of the market. For farmers in South Africa, this is, however, a good opportunity to innovate and invest in their farms. I encourage you to do it now because you don’t know what it will be like in five years’ time.
My message to farmers in the rest of Africa is to not rely on government support all the time. I see that in many countries, they get the seed and fertiliser from the government. I would also say save your money. I’ve seen that as soon as some farmers have money, they spend it.
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