The United Nations estimates by the year 2030, global demand for clean water will be 30% higher than today, while energy needs will be 50% higher. In the last 30 years, the number of droughts has doubled. However, even more importantly, the global demand for food is predicted to increase by 70% by 2050. Fulfilling these increasing food and energy demands means that great challenges lie ahead of us.
How will it be possible to increase production? Many biotic and abiotic factors will affect agricultural production in the near future. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), only 9% of future production increases will be due to new farmland, while 14% will be due to new agronomic practices. In contrast, 77% of production increase will come from improved yields.
It is within this framework that seed companies, both local and international, must work with producers to respond to this challenge. The prime motivation is to breed new varieties that feature greater characteristics and multi-quality factors, and to offer these varieties to producers and consumers in a timely manner.
The concept of quality is not a stable notion, but in fact a dynamic one. Every time expectations are fulfilled, it is followed by a rising demand for something better. A product considered to be of good quality in the past might be a characterised as average today, and unacceptable tomorrow. Consequently, in order to offer quality products and services, we must challenge ourselves.
From this perspective, ProGen has being working on new and very strong varieties of cotton, soybean, wheat, and barley developed by its R&D team every year with the same passion. The priority at ProGen is to develop improved varieties adapted to different regions, climates and soil conditions that meet the needs of local and foreign growers.
The EUREKA R&D funding network evaluated ProGen in 2012 and called it “a success story in Europe”, while TUBITAK cited ProGen as being one of the five leading companies contributing to EUREKA projects in Turkey. The company has ties to several public and private research centers in Turkey, Europe and other countries. The laboratories have concentrated their efforts to serve as a local genetic research center for global markets.
Progen employs more than 40 researchers, agronomists, biotechnologists and technicians at its modern laboratories and assigns a great deal of importance to its multi-faceted breeding program, which is accelerated through the use of winter nurseries.
Ali Ozbugday, president of the company, comes from a dynasty of entrepreneurs. The Ozbugday family was part of the revolution that, after decades of external dependence in the agricultural sector, turned Turkey into a seed exporter and a producer of cotton at a global scale. The balance, Ozbugday feels, is shifting again, and European and Central Asian crop production could owe a lot to Turkey in the coming years.
The process he describes is particularly long and tedious, compared to the creation of genetically modified breeds, as it can expand from two to 10 years. “The breeding experiments started during the project are not over,” he adds, “it is an on-going process, and every year, our research centres will bring us new products to provide our customers.”
For ProGen, the EASTBRED project has also been the occasion to reach new markets, with an offer now better adapted to the demand of its foreign customers. “An important market for the future will be Russia and Central Asia which has an important agricultural production capacity,” says Ozbugday.
The company’s turnover should double in the next five years and it should take some two to three years before it secures a dominant position on its targeted markets.
For more information, go to progenseed.com
