b'PARTNER CONTENTFarmers Drive Everything We DoBy David Pearson, Head of Branding at Limagrain Field SeedsW henever Im asked what is at the heart of Limagrain FieldAt Limagrain, we have a strong commitment to using scientific Seeds, I am incredibly proud to be able to give one cleartechnology to improve and adapt plant varieties for maximum answer: we are farmer-owned and farmer-led.regional yields. To meet this commitment, we have 84 research Limagrain was formed as a farmers cooperative in 1965 andsites globally and invest roughly 1516% of our income directly today we are owned by nearly 1,500 farmers in central France.back into technology-driven research. R&D investment is our big-Being owned and run by farmers is key to who we are. gest single budget item. Over more than 50 years, the Limagrain group has grownOur research takes into account our goal of reaching farmers to become the fourth largest seed company in the world with aglobally, large or small. We estimate that in Africa we reach about presence on six continents and sales to farmers in close to 8025 million farmers, some of whom are very small, but who have countries. the same needs as the huge ones. For us, no farm is too large or We havent grown to the size we are today because we havetoo small. Whether youve got half an acre in West Africa or half an ambition to be the largest seed company in the world. Oura million acres in South America, you are dealing with the same ambition for Limagrain Field Seeds is to be the leading pure fieldfundamentals, just on a different scale. You need adequate rain at seed specialist through multi-crop genetics and to be close alliesthe right time, and you need warm sun and healthy soil. As impor-of farmers of all sizes wherever they are located globally. However,tantly, you need top performing high quality and reliable seeds: our size does allow us to be competitive and to have the resourcesthats what we deliver. we need to invest in research that delivers high performanceFarmers make long-term decisions because they are always seeds and services to farmers around the worlddelivering localthinking of how the choices they make today will impact the next solutions thanks to Global resources = LG generation and the one after that. The farmers who own and run Our LG brand is a leading global seed brand, but it is alsoLimagrain are no different. Every decision we make is done with our identity. It has become a symbol for multi-crop productslong-term vision and the stability of local and global farmers in distributed across a wide geographic space. The brand includesmind.seeds that are genuinely global: what we call our strategic crops. Corn, wheat, sunflower and winter rape fall into this category. Depending on where farmers are in the world, we also have regionally adapted barley, soybean, millet, rice and pulse seeds. Our strategy is to be genuinely multi-crop. While some seed companies are specialists in one or two crops, we offer 10 crop species in Europe and always try to offer four or five in any given geography. Thats because farmers depend on multiple crops in their rotations, and we want to help farmers optimize those rota-tions. SEPTEMBER 2024 SEEDWORLD.COM/CANADA 15'