Monday, February 8, 2010

By Lyn Resurreccion

THE world is now grappling with ways to adapt to and mitigate climate change, and to conserve biodiversity—two of the urgent concerns confronting the world today.

The United Nations conference on climate change in the Danish capital Copenhagen in December last year—which was expected to provide ways to mitigate global warming that has already been victimizing the world’s poor—failed to produce an agreement that would make developed countries commit to reduce their greenhouse-gas emissions and provide financial resources and technology to help poor countries adapt and contribute to mitigate the warming of the planet.

Experts have been calling for industrial countries to reduce their greenhouse-gas emissions by 80 percent to 95 percent by 2050 based on 1990 levels, and that the world’s temperature should not be allowed to rise beyond 2 degrees Celsius to avoid the worst risks from climate change.

Environment experts say that even a relatively slight increase between 1 degree Celsius and 2 degrees Celsius in the global temperature may have significant impacts on world food security and if effective adaptation measures were not taken, it would cause a fall in productivity and would reduce land suitable for agriculture.

Coupled with this, the United Nations and the World Bank estimate the world population figure will increase to more than 8 billion within the next 25 years. To guarantee food supply, the World Bank estimates that approximately 90 percent of the required increase in food production must come from yield increases on existing farmland.

At the same time, another crisis—biodiversity loss—is getting full attention this year, after the United Nations General Assembly declared 2010 as the International Year of Biodiversity to raise public awareness on the importance of biodiversity and the consequences of its loss.

The highlight of the year’s activities is the Conference of Parties of the Convention of Biodiversity in Nagoya, Japan, in October to seek feasible solutions, develop an international framework and explore other effective strategies for the conservation of biodiversity.

Syngenta’s technologies

As the world political leaders and experts are negotiating to arrest the two crises, one of the leading agribusiness companies has been addressing the effects of climate change and biodiversity in agriculture by developing new crop varieties, crop-protection products and agricultural processes—to ensure adequate food supply.

And while climate change is known to have negative impacts on agriculture, on the other hand, Syngenta experts are saying agriculture can help mitigate the warming of the planet and adapt to it with the help of new crop varieties and new technologies.

Likewise, they say agriculture has a very significant role in conserving biodiversity.

Andrew McConville, head of Corporate Affairs of Syngenta in Asia-Pacific, said that as climate change is manifested in having some areas in the world wetter and others drier, it affects agriculture in terms of water availability and in greenhouse-gas emission.

Water stress; ‘paracetamol of plants’

“On the issue of water, we see the role agriculture can play in the two areas. One is to enable plants deal with stress better. Water stress can be little water or too much water. The second is helping farmers improve their efficiency in using water,” McConville told the BusinessMirror at the sidelines of Syngenta Asia-Pacific (Apac) Media Workshop held recently in Lebua at State Tower in Bangkok.

He said that in making plants efficient in tackling water stress, the 10-year-old firm has introduced new technologies, such as Invinsa, a spray-on chemical that makes plants adapt to drought or become heat-stress tolerant.

Describing it as “like a paracetamol of plants,” McConville explained that the chemical turns off receptors in the plant that tell the plant when it is under stress.

“When the plant gets stressed it stops to shut and soak down so that it could cope and survive. Much the same way as the human body does,” McConville said.

Invinsa turns off the pores of the plant so the plant can transpire (lose water vapor from the plant’s surface, especially through a minute surface pores or stomata) from its leaves less, meaning that water is retained in the plant, Peter Pickering, Syngenta’s Apac region head in seeds, explained in a presentation in the media workshop.

The technology enables the plant to have 5 percent to 15 percent more yield, Pickering said.

McConville said: “If we can turn off that part of transpiration, the plant uses [or would require] less water.... We can help the plant cope with [heat] stress because it preserves or contains more of its own resources,” McConville said. “In that way it helps the plant stay greener; it develops a much better leaf canopy.”

The chemical, which is already available in the market, is used in corn and leafy vegetables.

Drought-tolerant seeds

McConville said that Syngenta, which has its main headquarters in Switzerland and has offices in 90 countries, is also doing a lot of research in seed development using native traits, such as drought tolerance.

“We can breed traditionally bred varieties that can pollinate hybrids that are performing better under drought conditions. That is a normal hybrid process and we have a number of varieties which can perform well under dry conditions,” he said.

McConville said Syngenta’s biotechnology center in China is also doing research on drought tolerant trait for seeds for worldwide release.

Lessen greenhouse-gas emission

Through good agronomic practices, Syngenta helps lessen greenhouse-gas emission by encouraging farmers to adopt minimum-tillage or no-tillage farming.

“That means using herbicide-tolerant varieties, like in corn, which allow farmers effectively retain stubble and retain organic matter and use herbicide to control the weeds,” he said.

He explained: “What happens is that as you maintain vegetable matter on the ground, actually you reduce water use considerably; it stops water on the soil and stops transpiration.”

“We are doing a lot of work in trying and understanding the role of agriculture in greenhouse-gas emission. We introduced the minimum-tillage technology, that has an immediate benefit [in mitigating climate change] because farmers are plowing less, less machinery is running up and down, that means less greenhouse-gas [emission],” McConville pointed out.

The technology is available in the Philippines in herbicide-resistant corn.

‘Pani’ pot technique reduces water use

The alternate wetting and drying technique called pani pot (pani is Bangladeshi for water) developed by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and introduced in Bangladesh helps reduce water use in farming rice, McConville said.

A pani pot is about 80 centimeters high, with the diameter of a mango, round and with holes in the bottom half.

McConville explained that the pani pot is placed with its holes below the surface of the ground. The farmer looks into the pot to check whether the soil is wet or dry. When there is no water at the bottom of the pot, the farmer irrigates the farm.

“It is a very simple piece of technology that enables farmers to reduce water usage in rice [farming] by about 50 percent and still have the same yield,” McConville said, noting that Syngenta is undertaking the work of educating farmers in the use of the technology.

He said the agribusiness firm is also looking into the role agriculture can play in storing carbon in the soil, or carbon sequestration.

“That is something we in Syngenta are researching on, are focusing on.”

Conserving biodiversity

Agriculture chemical producers are oftentimes frowned upon as causing biodiversity loss in the belief that the chemicals or the products they produce for farm use adversely affect the other living things in the farms.

The year 2010 being the International Year of Biodiversity, the BusinessMirror asked McConville to comment on the issue.

“We’re committed to work with environment groups on how to preserve biodiversity. Agriculture has a very important role in conserving biodiversity,” McConville replied.

The most obvious but probably least recognized why agriculture conserve biodiversity is the fact that farmers’ production can be increased even in small farm sizes, he said.

“In a given amount of land, farmers can grow more. Or put it in another way, in order to produce the same yield, the farmers have to plant on less land. So we can prevent or negate the need to trim more rain forest which is very important for the Philippines, very important for Malaysia, very important for Indonesia [and many areas],” he said.

“So if we can increase the productivity of a given unit of land, we can clear less land. That has an amazing effect,” he said.

Operation Bumblebee

McConville said Syngenta has “very good examples of work” in Europe that recognize the impact of biodiversity in terms of returning some native species in some areas of land.

He cited the Operation Bumblebee in the United Kingdom.

Syngenta’s web site said that bumblebee populations on UK arable farms have declined by more than 70 percent in the past 30 years mainly due to loss of vital nectar food resources and nesting sites as cropping patterns have changed. One of the 20 bumblebee species has disappeared, and three other species are on the verge of extinction.

Operation Bumblebee, pioneered and funded by Syngenta, mobilized more than 1,000 farmers in the national scheme, with each committed to establishing at least a hectare of specific seed mix. Farmers and advisors were provided with the training, skills and technical support to establish habitats rich in the traditional flowering species red clover, vetches and sanfoin.

The three-year project has already produced farmland buzzing with insect life after one year. In the first year the species Bombus ruderatus has returned on a Worcestershire farm. The rare bee species has been classified on the verge of extinction, and a key target in the government’s initiative to protect and resurrect UK farmland biodiversity.

It has demonstrated that proactive management of dedicated environmental areas will achieve far greater results for all biodiversity than simply deintensifying farm production.

“We’ve done a lot of research to try and understand how that happens, and we think we’ve gone to the bottom of that and have positive results. That’s a very specific project, that’s a very transparent recognition on the part of Syngenta that we need to work with environment groups to work in this issue,” McConville said.

Technology management

Syngenta is, likewise, engaged in managing its technology, whether in crop-protection products or in the use of genetically modified (GM) seeds.

“We work very hard with farmers to help them understand how to apply products more effectively, how to minimize the need for product application,” McConville said.

In India, the company developed its spraying model or spraying of crop-protection product so that spray drip is minimized.

“We spray what’s meant to be sprayed. We don’t spray what doesn’t need to be sprayed, and that’s Syngenta technology. That’s aimed to preserve biodiversity. We farm the area we need to farm and we minimize the impact on the surrounding area,” he said.

Educating farmers

The agribusiness firm also has an extensive stewardship program in educating farmers.

“I don’t know the specific number in the Philippines, but in India we trained 106,000 farmers [in 2008] in the safe use of chemical sprayer. Worldwide we have trained 2.4 million farmers in safe application or safe use [of chemicals],” he said.

“People do not necessarily directly associate that with conserving biodiversity. On the other hand, I would because that means that agriculture is minimizing and managing its impacts on the environment. Nothing we [people] do is completely absent on impact on the environment. You and I walking outside have an impact on the environment. So everything has an impact. It is about understanding those impacts and minimizing it, so that is where we’re focused on doing,” McConville explained.

He added: “Safe use is something very important. The introduction of GM [genetically modified] technology, the use of exclusion zones or protection zones, the educating of farmers on the importance of avoiding building up of insect resistance, all these have very big impact on biodiversity.”

Reusing, recycling empty containers

In the Philippines, agribusiness firms under Croplife, including Syngenta, are collecting empty chemical containers—or buy them back from farmers—so they could be disposed of properly or recycled.

“Yes, that’s a very successful experience in the Philippines where we look to have farmers return used containers. We take the responsibility and the cost in disposing those safely. We are much better placed to take and destroy or reuse those containers in appropriate way. The farmers return the used containers so they are not stored down in the back area of the farm where they degrade in the environment,” he said.

McConville cited the same program in Australia on reusing and recycling industry packaging, in addition to safe storage and safe use.

Applicator of the Year Award

He took note of the launching of an award to encourage farmers in the proper use of sprayer applicator in Australia. Called Sprayer for Sprayer Applicator of the Year, which was launched together with a national newspaper, McConville said farmers were able to demonstrate that they were using the spray technology appropriately

“The winner of that project go to the UK to see how they use spray technology in the UK. With the program, we were able to educate literally thousands of farmers about the importance of spray technology,” he said.

Less chemicals

In helping conserve biodiversity, the agribusiness firm has invested money and intellectual property in developing more effective active ingredients so the farmers can use less chemicals and target specific issues or specific problems without having an impact on the rest of the environment.

“Technology in crops is a good example when it deals with a very specific issue and has no other impact. We can do the same thing with crop chemicals, as well. We can develop acai weight loss chemicals that are very specific to an issue or to a very broad spectrum,” McConville said.

He cited Cruiser, a broad-spectrum insecticide applied as a seed treatment. He said only 2.5 milliliters of active ingredients is used for 25 kg of seeds.

“That’s a very, very small amount because that’s a very specific technology for specific task.”

Cruiser is applied to the seed before it is planted to protect the seed in its early development against fungus and some insects. It also provides excellent germination and early crop vigor, allowing crops to reach their maximum yield potentials; and preserves beneficial insect species that do not feed on the seedling, among others.

“Those things are very positive for biodiversity, which the people associate less to biodiversity. So if we can use less chemicals and be more specific in treating the issue with no adverse acai berry effects , that is good for the environment and that’s where a lot of money is being invested, as well in very specific applications. And technology is much more effective now than it was,” McConville pointed out.

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