b'CEO of East-West Seed Douwesideration in discussions of global Zijp explains their efforts are nothealth, whether looking at obesity only healthy for consumers, but alsorates or hunger and malnutrition, good for famers.even before the pandemic.We can spend a lot of timeHidden hunger and malnutri-providing the right seed, and offer- tion are real problems in many ing training to farmers, but they stillareas. Ultimately vegetables and need to have the market, he says.fruits have to make the difference, The whole value chain is supportedAttavar says.by this initiative.Trends on the HorizonStarting Small Michael Keller, secretaryVicente Navarro, seniorIn addition to a higher priority on ISF has 7,500 members, many ofgeneral of ISF. vice president of BASFshealth, ISF and their members are which are vegetable-focused seedvegetable seed business. also responding to other post-2020 companies engaged in breeding,trends.producing and marketing vegeta- We have clearly seen an ble seeds.increase in local farming, Zijp Arthur Santosh Attavar, chair- points out, whether thats vertical, man and managing director, Indo- indoor, urban farms or just in the American Hybrid Seeds (India) Pvt.backyard. All of those new growers Ltd., says access to good seed isneed seed.where the IYFV goals begin. In countries where there were As a seed producing company,very strict lockdowns, farmers especially in working with smaller- couldnt always reach consum-scale farmers, its very important weers, so people resorted to home provide access to good seed, heMary Ann Sayoc, publicDouwe Zijp, CEO ofgardening and growing their own says. When we have quality seed,affairs lead of East-WestEast-West Seed. food, Sayoc adds.our farmers can provide the qualitySeed. COVID-19 challenges also products the market needs, both inencouraged the switch from mono-India and the rest of the world. Education is top of mind for East-West Seed. Theircropping to multicropping, some-Attavar says their companyeducation programs trained 48,000 farmers last year,thing Attavar believes will continue was the first to start hybrid flowerwhich was down slightly due to travel restrictions, butas consumers prefer to diversify and vegetable seed production inZijp hopes to see those numbers increase as logisticstheir diet.India in 1965. They also introducedimprove in the future. Its something weve been commercial hybrid flowers andIn the meantime, we are doing a lot of virtual train- working on, although it may not vegetables in India in 1973. Thising and also expanding our knowledge transfer pro- happen instantly, he says. But it effort played a significant role ingram to other less restricted areas, Sayoc says. not only benefits the sustainability India emerging as one of the worldsof the farmer, but also impacts food largest producers of fruits and veg- New Focus on Nutrition consumption, which will be getting etables. Empowering stakeholdersDuring the pandemic, health moved higher on themore diverse. Farmers believe that through knowledge-building andagenda for many, from a focus on fresh air and sun- apart from growing and eating just skill development is an importantshine to increased vitamin consumption. wheat, corn or rice, vegetables and step in that success.We consider this year a unique opportunity tofruits will add more diversity to their Weve trained more thanraise awareness, and its coming at the right moment,cropping system.10,000 farmers through the yearsNavarro says. Were seeing a tremendous demand forSeed companies have closely in hybrid seed production, he says.healthy food, which is very good news for society, butmanaged supplies to respond to Even farmers with only a quarteralso for us in the food system. these shifting trends, including of an acre are still able to produceAttavar reports Indias agriculture industry showeddemand for specific products.a quality product that passes all ofa growth of 3.4% during the pandemic, when otherFor example, East-West Seed our quality testing. industries were negative. reported demand for leafy vegeta-Educating and empowering theseInterest in home gardening also increased.bles was particularly high in 2020 smallholder farmers to produceIn general, the seed industry has done very well,as they have a shorter produc-better crops is an important industryAttavar says. We learned to cope with the situationtion cycle, with only 25-30 days to focus as companies and organiza- and now were excited to continue to support a world- harvest. tions work together to increase foodwide trend toward healthier eating. Tropical vegetable demand security and nutrition worldwide.Of course, food has always been an important con- was also good as people wanted to 48/ SEEDWORLD.COMINTERNATIONAL EDITION 2021'