b"Below: Sunflowers stretch toward the Andes under Chiles blue skies, where both beauty and biotechnology thrive in counter-season production systems.It has to be face-to-face. Some other firmspositive change has also been permanent.pandemic made us see the importance of have reduced their networking activitiesSending seed as soon as possible andhaving a good national association team. over the long term, but its not a strategygetting all the planning and paperworkReturning to the seeds in the fields, we wanted to try. arranged in advance, this is the new normalSchindler notes that all the data thats Schindler adds that ANPROS continuesway of doing things, Schindler says.being collected at field level since the a hybrid work environment where staffAlso, the speed of solving problemspandemic (including many aspects of work from home about two-thirds of theincreased during the pandemic and thatcrop production from drone and satellite time. He says this provides a better qual- speed has stayed in place, he adds. Wetechnology, irrigation sensors and more) is ity of life, and that happier people workhad to work with the authorities to solvealso improving seed yield and quality. better.many, many things, and now its becomeNow we have all this data that we normal that problems are addressed inare not only able to share with our global More Frequency, Many Benefits one day. We have the solution or path topartners, but we are using to help us The power of the internet also enablesa solution in the same day the problem ispush boundaries of production, he says. communications to be more frequent, inreported, and that is absolutely a resultExciting times are ahead. turn enabling counter-season productionof the pandemic. This is very positive.Schweigert is also very positive. to be more agile.The seed production system was resilientThe uncertainty in the beginning of We used to do Gro Alliance boardbefore, and its now so much morethe pandemic was really scary, he says. meetings once a year in person and nowresilient.There was so much we didnt know. But we do four or five meetings per year virtu- The digitalization of paperwork in thethere is so much weve learned and we ally, Schweigert says. We all get a closerChilean seed sector is also permanent,now have so many new benefits.SWview of operations, and we can also bringalong with its many benefits. in a technical staff person for part of theVarietal certification has been greatly meeting to explain something. facilitated by digitizing the process, Sahli Regarding webinars, Schindler sayssays. Also, payments can these are now planned but also added asnow be made through the needed.SAG's online payment portal, We used to plan about eight webinarswhere previously over about three months but now we alsowe had to go to do them on demand, when some impor- each office to pay tant topic comes up, he explains. Forfor SAG service instance, in March, I spoke to an official inprovisions. In our Ministry of Agriculture (SAG) and weaddition, the SAG's will hold an upcoming webinar on what weonline SIIS System talked about. allows importers to check the Use of social media since the pan- status of their procedures, demic is also more frequent for ANPROS,which has simplified allowing more communication withand streamlined seed members. We were doing reports once aimports. It has given week before and now we do these threecompanies a vis-times a week, sharing them on LinkedIn,ibility of the process for example, says ANPROS Head ofthat was not previ-Communications Mara Paz Gana. ously available. I would add that as an association, Other New Norms ANPROS has represented During the pandemic, because therethe industry well, working were delays in logistics all over the world,with SAG to improve all these ANPROS stressed that everything mustareas. They are always very be done more in advance than usual. Thishelpful to the industry, and the SEPTEMBER 2025SEEDWORLD.COM /21"