New East-West Seed facility to bring the next generation of hybrid crops

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BY DHEL NAZARIO

If there's anything East-West Seed (EWS) Philippines brings to the table (other than disease resistant vegetables), is its core principle of putting farmers first in each of its many endeavors with the hope that planting the seeds of goodness leads to far greater things.

This is perhaps what officials of EWS had in mind when it inaugurated its new 36-hectare facility called the Hortanova Research Center in San Juan, Batangas last Feb. 28. In the speech of EWS CEO Jean-Christophe "JC" Filippi during the inauguration ceremony, he said that this milestone represents the company's unwavering commitment to innovation excellence, but most importantly to the farmers, who are the backbone of their success.

"East-West Seed has also been a company driven by innovation. Our mission is simple yet profound: to empower farmers by providing them with the best vegetable seed that can withstand the challenge of changing climate, improving their yields, and most importantly, securing their livelihoods," he said.

Filippi added that this facility is more than just an investment in research but also an investment in the future of Philippine agriculture.

According to Ruby Samonte, Country Head, Research and Development of EWS, constructing this facility in a rice-based area can help them in developing climate-resilient varieties of vegetables.

This, in turn, could help rice farmers who make up a vast majority in the area, an option to go into vegetable farming. But she stated this will not be limited to San Juan, Batangas, and mentioned that breeding in this type of area can provide rice farmers in the Philippines an opportunity to diversify crop plantings alternately with an adaptable vegetable variety that they can make use of.

She said that the most important thing to expect out of this new facility is the development of innovative products with superior traits for the benefit of the small holder farmers prioritizing disease-resistance, climate-resilient varieties, and ultimately higher yield for farmers.

"Most importantly, the higher yield could, of course, help the farmers increase their income as part of their livelihood," she added.

Samonte also stressed the importance of their seeds being accessible and affordable for the farmers for them to venture into vegetable farming and become future entrepreneurs.

For Henk Hermans, EWS' General Manager for the Philippines, this "beautiful" new location offers a bigger capacity that provides a lot more space for them to get the job done in terms of testing and breeding.

With this, he said that they have more area to do their tasks more systematically through the different crops and products that pave the way for their data to become a lot more accurate in a way that improves their breeding capability.

"It's a big investment for the company...So we expect a lot of new products, you know, vegetables for the Philippines but also a lot of new vegetables for other areas," he added.

He mentioned that EWS, which started in the Philippines about 43 years ago and has since branched out to many places, is now also very active in Africa and Latin America so many of the products in those countries are being bred here.

Aside from farmers who are very close to their heart, Hermans said that they also look at the vegetable consumers by searching for new trends to see how they can provide new products that are both interesting and attractive.

Through it, he said that they aim to increase the consumption of vegetables in the Philippines.

He also mentioned the important role of traders and financers who help the farmers with financing and who make sure that their products are optimized in such a way that it's easy to handle and become something good to invest in.

Shorter hybridization, better products

Hermans stated that apart from the facility, it will also be the people and the methodologies that they employ that will contribute to the tedious hybridization process that takes as long as 10 years before it goes out to the market. Shortening the time meant keeping up with how fast the market moves.

"We have certain methods here that we use in Lipa and in this location, which help very much to shorten that period," he said.

One of the plant breeders of EWS, Marilyn Hinlo, explained that in hybridizing, there are two existing materials; in this case, two vegetables with varying traits that are combined to produce a desired trait.

Based on what she explained, the resulting traits that they usually look to achieve depend on what is needed for it to live in a certain environment, such as being resistant to specific diseases and climate.

Some of the new generation of hybrids that were showcased were Suprema Gold, which has intermediate resistance to Squash Leaf Curl Philippines Virus (SLCPV); Datu F1, a hybrid sweet corn variety. Also showed was Galante Todo, a variant of string bean.

Maria Venus Bautista, the Crop breeding Manager of EWS, said that in developing hybrids, they take a market-driven approach and take into consideration the challenges faced by farmers. This was the case with Suprema Gold, wherein SLCPV was one of the most prevalent diseases that plagued squash production in the Philippines.

"Because of this resistance, we were able to increase the production by 30 percent," she explained.

No farmer gets left behind.

Despite the continued growth and modernization even in agriculture and farming, Hermans assured that no farmer gets left behind, whether they're adept in old school or more contemporary methods.

With this in mind, Hermans said that they are always open to see what kind of partnership they can bring because of EWS' enthusiasm for working with people. He emphasized the importance of catering to all of their partners as they have helped each other for the last 40 years.

"For instance, we're working together at the moment with urban farmers in BGC...It brings a whole new group of people who are interested in farming. We can help by working with them to make it a profitable business," he said.

"In the end, the whole group of farmers, whether it's the more traditional or more modern, we all work together. It's all about food. We're providing food security for the country," he added.