40 Farmers, 40 Years of East-West Seed

40 FARMERS

40 YEARS OF EAST-WEST SEED

Welcome

Dear reader,

Welcome to this book and the celebration of 40 years of East-West Seed. What started as a simple idea forty years ago has become an incredible adventure that has not yet ended. Over the past four decades, we have helped millions of smallholder farmers in South and Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America out of poverty. All these different regions have one thing in common: they are tropical or dry areas where farming sometimes is complex and where hunger is just one failed harvest away. Farmers had difficulty growing food for themselves and their families, with little or nothing left to sell on a local market. No wonder almost 50 percent of the population in these areas were farmers: they had to eat. East-West Seed strives to uplift farmers’ lives around the globe. Our ability to deliver good seeds helps our farmers get higher yields. But that is not where we stop. We teach farmers how to farm and help them set up shop and improve their income through our Knowledge Transfer initia tive. We encourage women to start farming. In some countries, 40 per cent of the female workforce is already active in food production, and many women know about crops. With equal access to the products and methods, their farms could return up to 30 percent more. The total pro duction in developing countries could increase by up to 4 percent, reduc ing the number of hungry people worldwide by 12-17 percent, that is an

estimated 100-150 million people.

For societies to become increasingly self-sustaining in their food needs, we need to become more and more inclusive. Farmers, men and women alike, are bringing prosperity to their children, families, communities, and markets. East-West Seed wants to contribute to changing their lives dramatically and for good. We are incredibly proud of being part of that.

In 2019 my father, East-West Seed’s founder Simon Groot, received the World Food Prize, an award for the work of a lifetime. Meanwhile, for 40 years, our farmers have done the hard work. It is time to honor them. Many have become advocates of good farming in their own communities, eager to share their knowledge. They are also eager to share their experi ences with you. The result is right here in this book, which celebrates that journey.

After the farmers’ stories, our founder Simon Groot and our CEO Douwe Zijp share their visions on the past and the future of East-West Seed.

Enjoy! Ard Groot Chairman East-West Seed

Loyal Farmers

Forty years of farmer heroes

Over 23 million farmers in 74 countries plant East-West Seed’s 973 im proved varieties of 60 vegetable crops on 31 million hectares. With seeds and techniques learned from Knowledge Transfer, farmers around the globe have doubled or tripled their yield and more than doubled their incomes. Their high-quality, nutritious vegetables reach hundreds of mil lions of consumers, especially women feeding their families, at an afford able price.

Over the last four decades, East-West Seed has expanded across Asia, into Africa, and now into Central America as well, keeping smallholder farmers’ interests at the center of its business approach. In 2021 the Ac cess to Seeds Index ranked East-West Seed first among vegetable seed companies in its efforts to make quality seeds accessible to smallholders. In that same year East-West Seed sold 30 million $1 value packs, each containing a small amount of high-quality seed, perfect for smallholders to plant small plots with vegetables.

East-West Seed celebrates the association with loyal farmers in many countries by recognizing them as ‘farmer heroes’. They have achieved suc cess, made significant contributions to their communities, proved inno vativeness in adopting new technologies, and could serve as role models to other farmers on how vegetable farming can enrich lives. These farm

ers, who have worked with East-West Seed for years or relatively short, are advocates for the goal East-West Seed strives for: uplifting farmers’ lives around the world.

We wants to express our gratitude to the farmers who have supported us all these years by celebrating their success, innovativeness, entrepre neurial spirit, and hard work. Their perseverance has not only uplifted the lives of their families but also the entire local vegetable industry. Through their stories we also want to inspire others, especially the younger genera tion, to engage in farming and become successful vegetable farmers.

Papaya field of Alex Galdámez, Guatemala

Alex Galdámez, Guatemala

‘I worked for different companies where I learned the basics of farming. My dream was to have my own company and employ my family. In 2014 I started a business with friends, and in 2020 I decided to go on my own with my family – my brother and two nephews. We now own 25 hectares of land, and I have my clients and providers.

I have learned about balance in nature. Before I used to spray 84 pesticides, but now only 6 or 8. I’m gentler with the environment. I try to produce in the most natural way possible. It makes me happy to take care of nature and use natural cycles. My plantation may not be the most beautiful, but I can assure you it is sustainable.’

Hồ Văn Hải, Vietnam

Ha Thi Tien, Vietnam

‘I used to plant rice before switching to cucumbers. They are easy to grow and the income is 10 to 20 times higher than from rice. I’ve been working with East-West Seed for 20 years.

My family’s living conditions are much better than before. Our meals are tastier, I have money to buy household items and provide for my children.

I’m encouraging other farmers. I plan to buy more land. My children also grow cucumbers. I can help them to realize their dream too.’

‘I have been a farmer all my life. My father was also a farmer. I have been a partner of East-West Seed for more than 30 years.

I grow corn, I used to be the village head and I have led the Organic Agricultural Network in Angthong. We have been using effective microorganisms to increase the diversity of our soil. I have retired now. Villagers still call me headman and come to my house from time to time to get advice about growing vegetables.’

Sawong Ngamnon, Thailand

‘I was a technician in a food company. My husband was a soldier. When he retired, we started backyard farming.

We have 5 hectares now. The Department of Agriculture organizes trips to our farm. Our day is not complete if we don’t visit the plants. Little by little, it seems our passion has grown to become an addiction, haha!’

Eden Bunuan Arquero, Philippines

‘We are expanding again. We are able to buy our own land, farm machines like a rotavator, water pump, and mini tiller. The funds we use in developing the farm are income from growing vegetables.’

In 2019 husband and wife farming duo, Lê Văn Long (Long) and Nguyễn Thị Thanh Thuỷ (Thuỷ), had to fight off skeptics and even convince each other that life in farming could be part of a brighter future for them. Thuỷ is a primary school teacher, and Long, at the time, had a job in agricul tural engineering. With stable employment and a solid professional status in their communities, their families were stunned that Long would want to leave his career to turn to farming and that Thuỷ wanted to join him part-time in the fields.

‘At first even I could not understand why he wanted to do this, but we started in a net house growing melons, and after a while I saw that Long was good at what he was doing and I could see the potential,’ says Thuỷ.

Even so, the couple knew the risks. Farmers in the northern regions of Vietnam mostly grow rice, corn for animal feed, sugarcane, potatoes, and sesame seeds, spending long hours in their fields for limited yields and profits. Farmers are highly affected by seasonal whims and are up against increasingly extreme climatic conditions in these parts of Viet nam. Melons are not traditionally grown in this district outside of Hanoi. The couple had to do their homework, carefully doing good site prepara tion and seed selection exercises. They also tested various seed varieties until they eventually settled on East-West Seed’s KHH (Kim Hoang Hau) melon seeds.

Success and financial security followed. But what made the couple

‘The taste of our first melon’

Lê Văn Long and Nguyễn Thị Thanh Thuỷ, Vietnam

especially happy was that the melons they grew helped support their 20-year-old daughter to continue her university studies. They also believe that being in nature, working on the land, and growing food contains es sential life lessons for their daughter about care, effort, adaptability, sus tainability, and resilience. ‘I always tell my daughter that whatever she goes on to do as a career, she’ll be able to think back to how it’s not unlike farming because everything is about how you care for something to grow,’ Thuỷ says.

Both Long and Thuỷ emphasize that farming is not without its chal lenges. It is physically demanding, and it’s essential to be able to plan for setbacks. There’s a need to understand external circumstances like government regulations and intervention programs that made financing especially difficult in their case. There are also overheads like marketing and promotion that have to be in place even for smallholder farmers to expand customer bases and gain traction in new markets.

For Long, being in the field has allowed him to express his theoretical background in agro-science studies. It’s also why he can embrace tech nological interventions in farming – from regulating moisture content in the soil to fertilizing in a targeted manner and calling on expert help through East-West Seed to fight plant diseases when their crops have been threatened.

‘I appreciate the support from EWS because they provide us with very high-quality seeds. I would only add that they must continue to work on the research and development to ensure that the germination rate of seeds improves further and that they can also work on seed coatings for better disease prevention,’ Long says.

For Thuỷ science, research, and more supportive partnerships in agri culture, will be the model for farming in the future. ‘Sometimes we plan school trips to the farms so the children can understand how their food is grown and also understand the role of farmers in growing the food

The couple’s devotion and determination have paid off. Their yellow melons did grow and won the praise of everyone in their village. ‘I was very proud the first time we took our melons to markets in Hanoi. When we cut them open, there was this sound like a crack, and then when we tasted the melons, they were crisp and sweet, and everyone was impressed. We were delighted, which gave us more motivation,’ says Thuỷ.

The couple quickly earned themselves a reputation and more happy customers. With more sales, they were also able to increase the size of their farmland from 2000 m2 to 3000 m2 and they have also been able to become a loyal employer of farm laborers.

Long and Thuỷ return to the motto: ‘We grow for you, and we produce from our hearts.’ This is what they believe in and why they say they’ll still stick to growing melons for a little longer. As they look to their future, they hope to expand their farm.

Nguyễn Thị Thanh Thuỷ, Vietnam

I got stability and prosperity. It takes almost 15 months before sugarcane can be cut down from the field. In the same time span, we can harvest 3 to 4 vegetable crops in that field.

One advice I want to give my fellow farmers, is to start growing what the market is asking.’

‘Though my hometown Shirol Taluka is known for sugarcane, I chose to go into vegetable farming. I’ve been doing this for the last 10 years.

Gautam Shivappa Ingale, India

‘I moved to Bangkok to work as a housemaid when I was young. I earned around 20 US$ a day. I wanted to do better, so I came back to Sri Saket, saved up, bought land, and started farming.

Vegetable farming brought our family where we are today. I don’t want my children to live as I did. My eldest daughter is about to graduate with a doctorate degree. My youngest is doing well with a full-time job in agriculture.

I never considered farming hard work. I enjoy keeping myself busy.’

Boonjao Naiyanit, Thailand

Wassana Subcharoen, Thailand

‘I feel happiest when my vegetables are sold even before they’re actually harvested. People trust me and my products because they know that they come from good quality seeds. Our family has a strong relationship with East-West Seed, and we’ve been able to earn a living.

My land is selected as a trial area for new varieties such as pumpkins, bitter gourds, and corn. It is an opportunity for me to learn more, and I am happy to share the knowledge with my friends and neighbors nearby to help them earn more income from growing vegetables.

My greatest accomplishment was being able to support my son until he graduated from university. He is currently working for the Provincial Administrative Organization.’

‘I used to grow cereals and field crops in traditional ways. When I heard about vegetable farming, I learned that you can earn more with that, even in a small space.

I have been working with East-West Seed for more than 8 years now. I learned technologies that I shared with my relatives and friends. They were also able to improve their income. I feel rewarded when seeing them happy.

I was able to fulfill dreams for myself and my family. I have survived floods and financial hardship. In 5 years, I hope to be a good agriculture advisor so I can help farmers here in our area. I want to be an example of how they can be successful. I dream that my children study well, become agricultural scientists, and help farmers.’

Bishwanath Behera, India

Gabby Retuya,

‘I worked with my parents, planting traditional crops like rice and corn. It would take more than 4 months before you earn from those. We couldn’t afford anything.

I hadn’t planned to be a farmer. I graduated in criminology and had different jobs. That didn’t work too well, so I went back to farming. I discovered East-West Seed in difficult times.

My life changed. You can start earning after 45 days already.

My house, my seedlings and my agriculture supply business are all from my earnings from farming.‘

‘I used to mix 2 to 3 tomato plants per hole. I found out that it is much better to grow just 1 tomato plant per hole. The life expectancy of the plants is good.

That’s why I like to advise other farmers to try and explore improved farming practices on their farm.’

Rubisper

A ‘macho’ man’s journey

Rubisper Udal, The Philippines

The day Rubisper Udal harvested his first crop of Macho F1 sweet corn back in 2012, was a day of deep joy and pride for the farmer based in the province of Bukidnon. He remembers watching as the sacks filled up one after the other with healthy cobs. He was so thrilled that he splashed out on a celebration with buckets of fried chicken to share with his family and his team of farm hands. ‘I was delighted that day because I went from earning very little money as a part-time farm laborer to knowing I was going to make a good profit as I started growing my own vegetables,’ he says.

After years of job insecurity, Rubisper started working for a local busi nessman who hired him to manage his farms. Two years later, he and his wife’s godparents lent them their land so the couple could start their own farm. He settled on growing sweet corn, starting with just one kilogram of seed to plant. Even though he was impressed by East-West Seed’s bottle gourd and papaya seed varieties that were popular in the region, Rubisper saw more potential in sweet corn. ‘The price of sweet corn is better, and you can harvest in just 75 days.’

Now over a decade later, he says sweet corn has brought sweetness to his life, allowing him to turn farming into his lifeline out of poverty and toward prosperity. Today he employs a small team he affectionately calls his ‘Macho Boys’, named after his sweet corn variety, who work the fields

with him making sure the plants grow to their full potential. He’s also been able to build a house for his wife and two children and buy a car. And he’s been able to see his community benefit.

He believes that sharing farming skills and knowledge can all ultimate ly grow better produce to take to market. Rubisper is also now himself a financier, being able to invest in sweet corn farming on 15 hectares of land in the surrounding villages while he works his own 6 hectares of ar able land.

Rubisper’s commitment to uplifting his community saw him stand for village elections a few years ago. He won the seat and jokes that people didn’t even know his name at the time because everyone just referred to him as ‘the sweet corn guy’.

In the past decade, his partnership with EWS has also seen him deepen his knowledge of farming best practices, and he’s developed more robust networks in farming communities in the country. It’s allowed him to find more innovative approaches and solutions to overcoming challenges. Through EWS, he has access to a team of scientists he can call on for expert help, like the time fall armyworms infested his fields. ‘Because the company has a love for the farmers, the farmers can also love the com pany,’ he says. It’s a relationship built on trust in the quality of seeds and the ongoing support from the company long after selling products.

As one of EWS’ loyal farmers, Rubisper had the opportunity to travel to agribusiness conferences and events across the Philippines. ‘Thanks to sweet corn and EWS I have had many firsts that I didn’t imagine would come true – my visit to Manila, my first flight on an airplane; my first stay in a nice hotel, and I’m looking forward to more in the future,’ he says.

But even as Rubisper looks to new milestones and successes on his ho rizon, he says the true meaning of success lies in knowing that his family and employees are content and doing well.

This attitude to his farming and business practice means that it’s a reg

ular sight to find him and his men taking breaks with a basketball match in their backyard court or even going on short vacations together, bring ing their family members in tow.

Rubisper is on a mission to make people aware that hard work, per severance, patience, good planning, and learning from mistakes are all part of what become rewards for farmers. ‘Farmers make the world go round; we are very hard-working, and I want people to know that it’s a good job. Sometimes I come back from the fields, and my clothes are dirty, and maybe people look at me and judge me. But they don’t know how hard we have worked and that I’m very proud of being a farmer. If it weren’t for the farmers, there would be nothing to eat, especially during the pandemic.’

As for his beloved sweet corn, he’ll eat it prepared. Even the water from boiled corn is a tonic – a hangover cure too, he quips. It also swells his heart. But there’s nothing like the simple pleasure of biting into a boiled sweet corn cob grown in one of his fields, knowing it will fill his belly.

Rubisper

Maimuna Idris,

Women Farmers

‘If you teach a man to farm, his family will eat. If you teach a woman to farm, the community will eat.’

Women are important to rural economies and the agricultural sector. The dynamics of the family revolve around their contribution. Around 75% of women in rural areas work full-time in farming, from rearing poultry and small livestock to growing food crops. Women handle 40% of food production, either directly or indirectly. In many farming communities, women are still the primary custodians of knowledge on crop varieties. However, only about 13% of women have land ownership, so they con tinue to be underrepresented in the sector. They spend more time on the field than men, but have little decision-making power.

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that if women had the same access to productive resources as men, they could increase yields on their farms by 20-30%. This could raise the total agricultural output in developing countries by up to 4%, which could, in turn, reduce the number of hungry people worldwide by 12-17%, that is 100-150 mil lion people.

An inclusive approach is essential to bring women into agriculture and provide them with direct access to knowledge of improved agricultural practices. They should be encouraged to make agriculture their first ca reer choice; in that way, they can become ambassadors for the issues con

East-West Seed has been actively working for women inclusivity in ag riculture and entrepreneurship for several years. We focus a lot on wom en farmers as a part of our Knowledge Transfer initiative. We provide training to rural women in profitable and sustainable vegetable farming practices and train young women in setting up their agribusiness ven tures. We also train them to grow vegetables in their backyards to meet their families’ food requirements.

East-West Seed and the Knowledge Transfer initiative are continuously looking to explore and advance the role of women in transforming agri culture. As a first step, EWS and KT are conducting a research study that aims to understand the opportunities for women to contribute to sus tainable vegetable production systems and build the capacity of teams to understand gender issues in their working areas. As a final output of the research and study, we expect to deliver concrete strategies which will en able EWS and KT to further empower women in vegetable production.

Empowering women farmers will further improve their ability to boost their country’s agricultural sector. This section presents women farmers associated with East-West Seed and their success stories.

For more about Women Farmers visit: uqr.to/WomenFarmers

Bivian Cacatzi de Xico, Guatemala

‘As a single mother of 5, I carry all the responsibilities for my family affairs, like paying school fees for my children, the medical bills and all the home necessities.

I started farming in my small home garden. I used to produce just enough for my domestic consumption but it turned out to be my source of income. This motivated me to start meeting the demand for vegetables in my community.

I engage my children in farming during their holidays to teach them the work that provides for their school fees. Unique with vegetables is that even when I don’t have cash to pay the school fees, I can negotiate with the school administration and they buy my vegetables to compensate for the school fees in kind. This was never possible with the field crops that I used to plant.’

Maleka Bibi, Bangladesh

‘I started growing vegetables in my backyard for my household needs. Gradually, I earned from it so I started commercial vegetable production. With the increased income, I now am able to support my husband and contribute to our daily expenses. I am also saving income for the future of my children.

I want to become a successful woman farmer who can be a role model for all the women of my village. Our society is conservative and does not view women as a supporting hand for household income. I want to break that belief with my story.’

‘3 years ago, we got to know EastWest Seed. Since then, our vegetable production improved and we gained more.

The profit helped my family a lot. It enabled us to buy cows, materials, and machines for our farm.

As a mother, I am very glad that I can buy my children what they need. I never imagined that I could gain profit this fast by growing vegetables.’

‘Most of our villagers migrate to Thailand for better job opportunities.

I am a farmer, with the support of my brother. We mostly grow vegetables. My sister is a seamstress. Our parents were farmers too. Back then, we didn’t have proper technologies and our yield was very low. With support from East-West Seed, our family’s income has doubled or tripled.

Some neighbors returned from Thailand. They saw that our family’s economic condition has improved and asked us how we did it. I encouraged them to try growing vegetables and collaborate with EastWest Seed.’

Daw Khin Thi, Myanmar

‘I was able to support my niece’s studies.

I also bought a sewing machine for my sister. And, I do not need to worry about the expenses for my mother’s medicines.

I was also able to buy a water pump machine, water pipes, and other input for the farming activities.’

Katt Kimsrieng, Cambodia

The pioneer

Katt Kimsrieng, Cambodia

After 11 years of working in a shoe factory in the Kampong Cham prov ince of Cambodia, Katt Kimsrieng called it a day and decided to return to her family home full-time to look after her ailing elderly mother.

Katt is one of seven children, and even though her job in the factory gave her a secure income that helped support her parents and siblings, she knew in early 2020 that she needed to be by her mother’s side when her health started to fail. ‘It was the worst year of the pandemic, but even though we were not affected by lockdowns, I wanted to go back home to take care of my mother.’

But as her village days stretched, she realized she needed to find a way to supplement her lost income. ‘I looked around our homestead, and there was a plot of my land. Even though I had no experience farming, I decided to try to grow vegetables. I started by planting Chinese cabbage and yardlong beans. I chose these varieties because I needed crops that would only need a small piece of land and were not going to require too much maintenance because I needed to have enough time to look after my mother.’

As an absolute newcomer to vegetable farming, it was tough initially. She had problems with pests and diseases and didn’t have a strategy or plan for water management, fertilizing, seed selection, or scheduling sea sonal vegetable production. An additional challenge was being unable to

access information in the village quickly. ‘I was the first person in the vil lage to start growing vegetables; mostly, people grow rice in the district, so there were no other farmers I could talk to.’

But that year, Katt came across East-West Seed field officers who were setting up Knowledge Transfer programs for farmers in the area. In par ticular, EWS introduced the GAF, ‘Grow Against the Flow’, project. It was about breaking away from conventional ways of farming to equip farmers with new techniques and technologies to adapt better to their growing conditions. It also targeted strategies for off-season farming. Through the program, Katt learned of the benefits of grafting rootstock, building rain shelters, and applying integrated pest management principles that focus on preventative measures as the first line of defense against pests.

Katt says getting access to information, skills, and support made all the difference, and her enthusiasm to learn and apply her newfound knowl edge led to her being selected as an EWS key farmer in May 2020. As a key farmer, she grew her yardlong beans and leafy vegetables and recently added tomato plants grown through the grafting method. ‘I got a lot of training, which meant that I learned how to make the most of off-produc tion periods between harvests to still make our family lands productive.’

The 2000 m2 of land her family owned had become a flourishing veg etable haven within a year. Her crops were successful, and finally, she could harvest and have excellent produce to sell. She was surprised by the yield and also by the high quality of what she was able to grow on a small piece of land.

‘I was pleased when I saw the vegetables growing. I knew then that we could have vegetables to sell daily so there would be income all the time,’ she says. Having something in her pocket every day has been better than waiting for the end of the month for her salary, as she had to do when she was a factory worker.

In her first growing cycle, she planted yardlong beans on a piece of

land that was 300 m2 in size. She managed to record a profit that was nearly double her output costs. With the good earnings from her veg gie sales, she could buy some chickens and ducks as livestock to further boost the family income. ‘My life feels good now. I’m at home, close to my mom and family. And we also have an income because of the farming,’ says Katt.

There’s no turning back for Katt, who is fast becoming a model farmer. She’s already become involved in skill transfer and loves talking to others in her village and helping to guide them on their journey towards becom ing more productive and profitable farmers.

‘It’s been one year now, and I have loved this year of moving from be ing a factory worker to a farmer. I have gained a lot of knowledge and have excellent relationships with EWS field officers, who are always happy to help and give their advice and solutions. My proudest moments have been when people in the village have come to visit the farm, and they are so impressed with what I have been able to grow here in a small space. It makes me proud, especially since I have been able to achieve all this while being home looking after my mother.’

‘Vegetable farming has helped me in so many ways. I have learnt techniques, which I never would have imagined doing: measuring land or the PH level of the soil… My challenge was marketing my products. I now use my phone. I can post my products online and I can get instant buyers who keep asking for more. It is the best experience of my life.

I have one hectare to produce vegetables. My aim is to expand to over 5 hectares within 5 years, like my husband who is a businessman. I influenced him to venture into farming. He has started on 5 hectares and he is getting positive results.

If I have children, I want to be a good example and teach them farming so they will choose it as their profession.

I urge you young people and my fellow women to try farming, even in a small space, because it will help you in the long run.’

Felista Mihayo, Tanzania

‘I see myself as a developer because I managed to make things better for my family and myself. Vegetable farming has improved our lives.

Together we planned to build a house from the profits we made last season. We also used our earnings as capital to start our own brick-making business. We have already made 2200 bricks for our house and we got 4 truckloads of building sand. We are now awaiting the floor plan of the house.’

Marturia Women Farmer Group,

‘In 2021 we started our Marturia Women Farmers group in East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. At first, we planted mustard, but we did not quite understand how to do it properly. Our harvest was not so good.

Yayasan Bina Tani Sejahtera, a foundation that targets smallholder farmers in Indonesia, taught us good agricultural practices. Even though our days as housewives are busy, we are excited about learning new things.

After the training, we slowly started to grow other vegetables. Currently, we are growing the Dewata 43 F1 cayenne pepper. We hope to not only get good harvests and a decent income, but also better nutrition for our families.’

‘Many crops are harvested in our area already, so we decided to start with seedlings to support our community.

My husband and I have been gradually introducing our 3 children to seedling management from a young age: how to plant, how to take care of the seedlings, how to harvest them, and how to manage the development of the seedlings, inside and outside the greenhouses. We would like to see them grow and be involved and dedicated to our business so that they can follow up what we are doing.’

‘My family is small, I have a son of 25 and his wife is 23. Palmerola has become a window to the world because we have a new airport just 10 minutes away from our community. Palmerola has a water source that helps us to irrigate our plantation. My son is in charge of the irrigation system and fertilization and I am in charge of doing all the planting work on the farm. We are dedicated to the papaya crop. Vegetable farming has improved our lives. I was able to provide a better education for my son and we could build our own houses.’

Angela Escobar, Honduras

Ladiyo Garba,

The leading lady

Ladiyo Garba, Nigeria

Cabbage may be just a vegetable to most people, but to Ladiyo Garba, the cabbage has become her totem of women’s empowerment.

Just over two years ago, Ladiyo realized that working for a low wage at a local rice grower in her home village of Galadanchi in Kano state, Nige ria was not going to sustain her and her seven children. Her husband lives between his second and third families in another part of the province and is mostly absent. She is the first wife of a polygamist. A chance meeting with an East-West Seed field officer inspired and convinced her to try her hand at growing vegetables. Even though she had to discuss the idea of farming with her husband, it would be her task to work the land. It wasn’t an easy decision as she would be the first farmer in her community to start cabbage farming, and she only had a small patch of land on which to farm. She started out working on a demonstration-size piece of land that was 250 m2.

‘I started with cabbages so I didn’t have to build trellises for tomatoes, because I would have had to do all the work myself. I learned everything that the field officer taught me – even when she told me to grow the cab bages in a raised wide row of zig-zag beds and to mulch and fertilize in the right amounts at the right times, which no one here knew about,’ she says.

The weeks passed, and the vigorous, healthy plants that emerged slow

ly turned to cabbages that silenced the doubtful in her village. ‘I held that first cabbage I harvested close to my heart; I was so happy that I could grow this beautiful cabbage from a seedling. I wished I didn’t have to sell it, but I needed the money.’

The good yields meant happy customers and more sales. Ladiyo was able to put food on her table and pay the school fees for the younger of her children, aged between 8 and 20. She also bought a sewing machine that opened an additional source of income for her household by being able to offer sewing services to others in her community. She eventually doubled the size of her farm to 500 m2.

Ladiyo’s success made people take notice – especially other women in her village. She laughs that she’s become something of a farming hero. Her efforts smashed barriers by showing that women could achieve new empowerment and create their own income by turning to farming. That is no small feat in a region where women are not allowed to own land and can only farm on land they can lease.

‘I appeal to women to realize that they can be dependent on themselves through farming. They don’t have to go begging for their husbands to pay for school fees or see their children roaming the streets because they can’t go to school,’ she says.

Ladiyo has spent the past two years encouraging women to ‘build big dreams by starting small’. She’s a firm believer in learning the proper farming techniques, the business of farming, and adequate handling of produce, which means even tiny initial yields can be high-quality. That is where success begins.

She was part of establishing a women’s farming cooperative and sav ings initiative. They’ve been able to pool money to lease more significant pieces of land on which to farm. Ladiyo says everyone is welcome to join the cooperative, provided they are motivated and prepared to work hard tending to their crops. ‘A good farmer is also persistent and someone who

can face massive obstacles and is not easily discouraged.’ Some of the challenges for her community have come from poor road infrastructure and high transport costs that make it challenging to get their produce to new markets. In turn, it affects their ability to scale up.

Still, she says, the group perseveres, and being able to share the bur dens of setbacks and disappointments keeps their spirits up. The group has learned valuable lessons in organizing and creating structure, harmo nizing different roles for each farmer and resolving conflicts by staying true to their mutual goals.

Her relationship with the field officer and other experts at EWS has been steadfast. She can quickly turn to EWS when encountering hiccups, including fighting pests or finding better solutions to farm in conditions of extreme heat.

‘I have no complaints. I want EWS to bring more seeds to the commu nity, speak to more women about the modern way of farming, and show them that they can also start planting,’ she says.

Building a better future means looking to innovative expansion, and for Ladiyo it means adding tomato plants to her fields in the next season.

‘I am proud to be wearing better clothes, to be able to afford some small treats sometimes like yogurt and eggs; to know that my children are pro vided for and will have better futures. But I won’t stop; I want everyone to know my name as the woman who farms these beautiful cabbages and believe they can do the same for themselves.’

Ladiyo Garba, Nigeria

Godfrey Dramia,

New Vegetable Farmers

New farmers enriching farming methodologies

One of the biggest impediments for new farmers is that they lack skills and training in vegetable farming. Most new farmers encounter challeng es with high costs, limited access to inputs, and unreliable water facilities. For this reason, they end up focusing on producing vegetable crops for small markets or completely shy away from growing vegetables.

East-West Seed plays an essential role in helping new farmers develop holistic strategies to produce for broader markets. Our trained personnel constantly assist new farmers in approaching niche markets with locally preferred products.

Around the globe, vegetables are increasingly recognized as essential for food and nutrition security. Vegetable production provides a promis ing economic opportunity for reducing rural poverty and unemployment in developing countries and is a critical component of farm diversifica tion strategies. The Food and Agriculture Organization and World Bank in 2011 cited diversification as the ‘single most important’ source of pov erty reduction for small farmers in South and Southeast Asia. Increased access to domestic, regional, and international markets for vegetables can provide significant income incentives for farmers to enter vegetable pro duction.

Vegetable production, processing, and marketing offer opportunities

that can be especially attractive to the young: the production requires only small patches of land that can be mechanized and it ensures high profits in a relatively short period. This is why East-West Seed focuses on bringing farmers into vegetable farming.

By giving the right support, imparting market-oriented vegetable farm ing techniques, and offering them the right fit of varieties, East-West Seed is engaged at a very hands-on level with new farmers worldwide.

This section presents some great examples of new farmers who have joined the ebullient East-West Seed farmer community.

‘Since my childhood I have wanted to be there for my father with his crops, because they were the only source of income. He had to support us. He was one of my best teachers, he was one of the best agronomists I learned from.

I also decided to be a grower because I could not find a social position. We are educated but it is of no use to us, because of the political and economic situation of our country. I grow all kinds of vegetables, such as potatoes, onions, carrots, green beans, and cabbage.’

Guillermo Mendoza, Guatemala

Ngo Hoang Bao, Vietnam

‘I have been planting Lion 10 corn since 2019, just before the COVID pandemic. Before that I planted cassava and sugarcane. Corn is easier and the revenue comes faster. It requires less labor. If the corn is as big as the one I am holding, 1 ha earns about 100 million VND ($4,700), and the profit is around 70 million VND ($3,290).

Currently, I am growing more than 2 ha of plants such as bitter gourd, wax gourd, luffa, and corn. Thanks to the switch to growing corn, I was able to buy a Hyundai truck for 1 billion VND ($47,000) to deliver vegetables to the market.’

Career swap

Ko Kyaw Min Naing, Myanmar

Like the rest of the world, Myanmar was badly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the fallout of lockdowns.

Ko Kyaw Min Naing ended his career and employment in furniture manufacturing in Yangon, the capital. As work options started to dwindle and his income ran out, Ko Kyaw Min Naing and his wife decided that they and their baby daughter would have to head out of the capital to his wife’s home village near Yenangyaung, in the Magway region, a nearly eight hours’ drive away. It is a rural community with a rich agricultural heritage, well-known for a variety of produce, including sweet corn, on ions, tomato, eggplant, and mung bean.

Even though Ko Kyaw Min Naing didn’t have experience in farming and was a stranger to the area, he decided to try his hand at working the land. Ko Kyaw Min Naing started with online research, looking up the varieties best suited for the region’s climate and conditions, and the seed companies that could be the best partners in support and training for his new career. He also tried to find as much information as possible on techniques and farming technologies. And he remained determined even when he sometimes had to rely on Google Translate because there was scant information in local languages.

‘I came across East-West Seed, which has an outstanding global repu tation in Asia and Africa. I decided to plant their seeds, and I chose the

Sugar King variety of sweet corn because I could see that other farmers in the area had success with this variety,’ he says.

He had two acres of land that he had access to, and he planted his first crop by October 2021. He managed two harvests in under a year. He was over the moon when the corn matured with deep sweetness and a soft texture. The local community praised the harvest, which sold well and earned good profits. It allowed Ko Kyaw Min Naing to extend his farm by half an acre.

The advice from East-West Seed was vital, especially as he was a firsttime farmer. It helped him to better understand more effective fertilizing schedules and ways to fight pests, and importantly that farming means ‘learning with each harvest’ – his words.

‘So far, I am delighted with the success because I didn’t plan farming as my career. I thought that I would be working in furniture making, but now that things are going better, I can see that farming can be a good way for me to build a new career to take care of my wife and child, and I hope that as my daughter grows up, I will be able to send her to premium schools,’ he says.

While sweet corn helped him recover economically, Ko Kyaw Min Na ing also realized he had green fingers. That is clear from his fields, abun dant with loofah and other vegetables, that help supplement the family’s pantry and boosts their household food security.

Ko Kyaw Min Naing has become deeply motivated now to help other farmers apply the lessons learned from EWS to optimize their yields, fetch higher prices at the market, and weather market fluctuations better.

‘My top tips for any farmer are to do proper homework to choose the right variety of seeds, and to learn all they can about the correct farming techniques, suitable for the conditions on their farms.’

This kind of work ethic and savvy allowed him to expand, and he’s already looking to the next high point. ‘I would like to be able to expand

my farm and plant more sweet corn so that I can afford more farm equip ment and machinery, which will reduce labor. In the beginning, I had to do bucket irrigation, row by row, but now I have been able to install a sprinkler system. My other hope is to be able to organize more farmers in my areas to come together to share ideas and also to be able to educate each other.’

Ko Kyaw Min Naing’s success has bought him happiness and confi dence. He’s grateful that he could bounce back from the worst effects of the pandemic. But even so, he says farming must now be able to adapt so that there will still be food grown even in the face of a deepening crisis of climate change and the reality that new pandemics will likely be the norm.

‘For the world we live in now, we must face climate change and life style changes from something like COVID-19, so we also have to learn to change as human beings. We have to harmonize and look to smart agriculture.’

‘We are the Persada Farmers’ Group in Kabali Dana Village. We are trying to cultivate the horticultural Dewata F1 chilli plants because the majority of farmers prefer to grow tomatoes.

We had to learn a lot. One of the obstacles was the lack of water availability for watering chilli plants; we now use a water tank.

If all farmers grow tomatoes, then who will be the buyers? We chose to plant chillies to fulfill each other’s needs. If we need tomatoes, we will buy them from the farmer group next door. And vice versa.’

Markus Umbu Pati, Indonesia

‘I realized the big dream of my life when starting my farm. I have been a tomato farmer in Carandaí for 3 years now and I am proud every day.

As tomato producers in Brazil, we face many challenges. One that sometimes keeps me from sleeping is the instability of the climate. It exposes us to rain, hail, high temperatures, and other uncertainties that can endanger an entire tomato production.

We are growing the Ghiottone tomato from HortecEast-West Seed from the beginning, and it adapts to our environment really well.’

I have 2 crop cycles per year, first sweet pepper and secondly lettuce, both from East-West Seed.’

‘Here in Kampong Cham, I have been growing vegetables in a traditional way for many years. Only this year I joined Knowledge Transfer and now my farm has already been selected as a Knowledge Transfer demo farm.

Sun Sokkheng, Cambodia

‘I love new ideas, and when I discovered butternut as a crop, I immediately planted it. I have been with East-West Seed for 10 years, and I have grown butternut on 2.5 acres of my land for the past 2 years. Although I faced challenges in selling it to retail stores during the first year, in the second year things improved a lot. Now I am getting repeat orders from retail stores like Big Basket. I want to expand.

Butternut has a longer shelf life, which considerably decreases storage costs. This helps a lot in transporting it across longer distances and selling it at a better price.’

Karthik, India

‘After my husband passed away, I took over all his tasks to support my family’s economy; there are 5 of us. Our main income comes from vegetable farming.

We can sell vegetables for a high price. We have 3 crop cycles per year: yardlong beans, caisim and tomatoes. I am really thankful to East-West Seed Knowledge Transfer for teaching me better techniques for growing vegetables. I am sharing what I learned with other farmers here in our village.’

Phoeuk Synzet, Cambodia

Farming fortunes

Godfrey Dramia, Uganda

Godfrey Dramia enjoys a moment of quiet triumph every four months because it’s at these intervals that he gets to harvest his vegetable crops. ‘It means every four months I have something to look forward to because I know I’ll have vegetables to sell.’

Godfrey used to be a cassava farmer like most people in Gangu village in the Terego district of Uganda. Even though it’s a local staple food with a good market, for Godfrey the inputs to farm cassava did not add up. He was not reaping any real rewards in terms of making better profits. ‘Cassava takes a big chunk of land to farm, it needs a lot of water, and it becomes tiresome to have to work the fields and to weed such a big area,’ he says.

It was by chance in early 2020 that he came across a demonstration farm that East-West Seed had set up in his community. It opened his mind, and it would change his farming fortunes. ‘I was very impressed with what I saw in that demo because all the vegetables were growing very well, and each had many fruits. With cassava, you have to wait one and a half year before you can harvest, in contrast with the vegetables. So that convinced me that I should switch and start planting vegetables.’

The father of six would go on to be an EWS key farmer, and he under went training with EWS in 2021. He says ‘knowledge is the key’, and the

training was essential in helping him gain the confidence to change direc tion with his farming. Godfrey says he values that EWS has always been ready to help. ‘I didn’t just get the seeds from EWS. I received instructions about raising seedlings properly, how to look after the soil, how to use a mulch to keep in moisture, and even ways to keep out stray animals, which are a big problem. I appreciate that you can talk to EWS about these problems, and they always come up with good advice.’

Godfrey knew he had made the right choice as the first four months of vegetable planting passed and his crops flourished. He started to make profits from his very first harvest. ‘There was even money for some sweets and pocket money for my children.’

Godfrey says his children are happier since he started vegetable farm ing, which makes him more comfortable. They’re often in the fields help ing Godfrey and don’t grumble like before when he asks them to help him weed, for they take pride in looking after the plants that have bought greater financial security to the family. ‘They can see that things are very organized in the fields. We use ropes to work in neat rows, and we match the different vegetables so that we can rotate what we grow, keep the soil healthy, and have different harvests in different seasons.’

Godfrey’s success on his farm has made him an EWS demo farmer in the region. ‘It was a moment of great happiness that I became an EWS key farmer. I hosted a tomato-growing demo that yielded very well. I har vested plenty of tomatoes and was happy when many admired them.’

People noticing Godfrey’s special touch has opened up a new opportu nity for him to raise seedlings for sale. ‘Many people don’t know how to do germination or how to take care of seeds, so now I have the knowledge from EWS, and also some extra time, I raise seedlings for other farmers,’ he says.

He is confident that as more people gain more vegetable farming skills, they will see the benefits of more intelligent farming to help alleviate hun

ger and poverty and that established farmers will improve their business models.

‘I used to see the young people at the roadside crying for jobs, but many of them are starting to see they could all be farmers. You only need a small piece of land to start growing, and then you will have something to eat or something to sell. Even those who used to grow tobacco think that they should be growing vegetables, and not just a cash crop with price changes,’ he says.

EWS intervention has been life-changing for him. His wish is for more EWS demonstrations, farms, programs, and workshops to cover a broad er range of issues, such as pest control, understanding markets, and busi ness management for farmers.

Godfrey says with a laugh that the veggies themselves are life-changing, in so much as changing his and his family’s eating habits. For example, they never ate cucumbers much in his household at all. ‘I like a tomato salad with cucumber and cabbage. I also like the roasted pumpkin seeds that we used to throw away, and I put the seed with peanuts – it’s deli cious,’ he says with a broad smile.

Young Farmers

Igniting young farmers’ enthusiasm for vegetable farming ‘Young Farmers present a huge goldmine that can provide a solution to the main challenges of the 21st century. Their energy and passion, empowered with the right tools and measures, will boost the entire agricultural sector towards a sustainable future for all.’

- 2022 GFFA Young Farmers Statement

Young farmers are the future of food security. Yet around the world, very few young people see agriculture as a means of livelihood. The COVID-19 pandemic has hit very hard and only increased the hurdles in trying to earn a livelihood. In addition, the pressures on the arable land across ge ographies are growing daily. Young farmers often lack access to produc tive resources such as extension, training, credit, and land ownership that are essential for success.

The challenge is how to ignite young farmers’ enthusiasm and re-en gage them in agriculture by enhancing their knowledge about new tech nologies and approaches that encourage sustainable farming practices and increase productivity and income.

East-West Seed is committed to training farmers at every stage with improved techniques in commercial vegetable farming. We create tai lor-made learning programs that can provide them with the skills and

insights needed to engage in farming and adopt environmentally sus tainable practices. We are also playing our part in connecting them to markets where they can sell their produce at a better price. We help them to become agripreneurs, and raise their self-esteem and confidence that they can make a living in rural areas.

This section presents some of our young farmers who made their mark by becoming successful examples for many in their own countries.

‘If we do not choose the right seed, we will waste time and money. We also need good agricultural practices; otherwise, crops will fail. In 2020, I grew half a hectare of butternut pumpkin. I got unexpected earnings. I bought a hand tractor.

I believe that I will be successful because I am young and I observe varieties, market prices, and the preferences of traders. If I don’t know something, I ask others who have the knowledge and I search on the internet.’

Alex Ondoma,

‘I am 26 and married, with 2 children. I grow vegetables and crops like maize, simsim, cassava, and beans. Vegetables are my cash crops.

I applied what I have learned from EastWest Seed’s Knowledge Transfer. I make more money than most people working in government. My happiest moment was building my own house from my vegetable earnings, which is a rare achievement for someone of my age in our community. I see how I can sustain myself now. I didn’t have the opportunity to go to school, but I will work hard to ensure that my children get the best education.’

The influencer

Ridwan Muhammed, Indonesia

Ridwan Muhammed is only half-joking when he says he spends about as much time on social media as he does in farming fields. The ‘millennial’ farmer sees his social media posts as an essential modern tool for raising the farming profile among young people. The internet is also one of the most convenient ways for him to access new ideas, expand his network, and get the latest farming information. He says some of what he reads and sees on social media enhances the farming methods and practices that he can apply in his fields in Garut, West Java, in Indonesia.

Ridwan is a third-generation farmer and grew up learning the ropes from his grandparents and parents. He has always loved farm life, and the buzz around harvest times on the family’s farm is among his most cherished childhood memories.

‘I was a very obedient and helpful child,’ he says with a cheeky smile. ‘I enjoyed working with my parents as I grew up, so I learned a lot from watching them. As for me, I want to continue the tradition of farming, help others start farming, and ensure they have access to the correct in formation to be better farmers. Many from the younger generation are embarrassed to become farmers; maybe they don’t think it’s a cool pro fession or believe they should be looking for careers in the big cities. But they can work with many new technologies as farmers, earn good pay

and have a successful life through farming.’ The 26-year-old currently farms peppers, potatoes, cabbage, shallots, and tomatoes. His red pep pers harvest allowed him to go from farming 2000 m2 to 5000 m2 steadily, and now he farms 20,000 m2.

What makes Ridwan a little different from his grandparents and par ents though, is that he undertook studies in agribusiness at college level. By professionalizing farming, he has been able to understand matters be yond planting and harvesting to optimize the business potential of farm ing. He says with better education, he has better knowledge of distribu tion chains, markets, and pricing. It’s the knowledge that also bolsters his negotiating power when it comes to dealing with buyers and distribu tors.

Ridwan, who’s been recognized as a promising emerging farmer in his community, hopes to be able to inspire others and help farmers organize better. He has already been involved in local farming cooperatives and is committed to knowledge transfer and finding collective solutions to common challenges. He is often found visiting farms to talk to farmers and to help initiate a closed-loop farming program undertaken by the Indonesian Ministry for Economic Affairs. Closed-loop farming aims to improve upstream and downstream convergence in the farming pipeline and to make farmers’ welfare a priority. In turn, it’s a recognition of the farmers’ role in boosting food security in the country.

‘Such programs help us to focus on developing our rural areas more, and it’s good because why must people always want to move away from here to go to the big cities?’ he says.

At the same time, though, Ridwan emphasizes that farming success does not happen without hard work and being able to develop personal resilience. Farming takes discipline. One has to be invested, involved, and prepared to do what it takes. ‘You cannot think that just because you’ve put seeds into the ground that they will grow – you need to water them

and to have the discipline to water them every day.’

What has helped him, is being able to lean on the support of East-West Seed. ‘My grandparents were already using EWS seeds from their time, so we have trusted them for a long time, and I can say that we are happy. I have built strong working relationships with many field officers, and one man who is now retired has become a friend, and I still talk to him now and then about what’s going on on the farm.’

The working relationship with EWS is good, and so are the seeds, he says, adding that all that he’d push for in the future is more research and development to target diseases and viruses that affect his crops.

He emphasizes that more research and development are essential to explore new frontiers. His next frontier is to look at developing agritour ism in the region. He believes there are opportunities for attracting pay ing tourists to experience life on working farms in the area, not unlike in other parts of the world such as Italy, the Philippines, and the United States. Another possible collaborative venture he is pursuing is working with local restaurants to have his farm produce or produce from the com munity showcased in specialty dishes.

Ridwan is not one to shy away from trying something new, because he wants to make sure new-generation farming is on the map – and if there’s more valuable content for his social media accounts, then all the better.

Muhammed Ridwan,

Desmalia, Indonesia

‘There is no easy way to grow vegetables. Hardship, constant learning, and care for the plants are the key to producing high-quality vegetables.

I hope more women become farmers and train on good agricultural practices and entrepreneurship.

Women are in the best position to give support and provide food for their families and nation.’

‘When I started, my neighbors made fun of me. Commercial vegetable farming is not very popular in Hatiya.

Now they are getting inspired because they see the benefits. Using good seeds and techniques will give you a much better production. Getting more than 600 kg of bitter gourd from a field smaller than 250 m2 made me very proud.

Our area is not yet very attractive for big buyers who can take our products to the larger district markets. It is hard to overcome that on my own. As more and more farmers will start vegetable production, a larger volume is likely to attract clients from whom we may get a higher price. I took the risk and it gave bigger returns.’

The mobilizer

Martin Frederick, Tanzania

No one should ever struggle to have enough food to eat – that is how Martin Frederick Kisamba feels about what’s missing in today’s society. The former Red Cross worker focused primarily on ensuring children’s welfare. He hails from a village near Nyandekwa in the Shinyanga region in Tanzania and has always believed in finding sustainable ways out of poverty for more people. Over the past four years, he has become con vinced that smallholder farming can be an essential key to releasing new abundance – or at least help keeping more people from going hungry.

It was in 2018, that he was invited to a farming demonstration day in Nyandekwa hosted by SEVIA, a partnership initiative between Wagenin gen University & Research in The Netherlands, East-West Seed, and Rijk Zwaan, a Dutch-based seed company, to promote sustainable small-scale farming in the country.

Seeing what was possible on a small demonstration farm got his atten tion. ‘I was very motivated also to try farming for myself because they showed that this could be something for everyone, even on a small plot.’

He went home and, weeks later, decided to buy four acres of land. He dug two boreholes and started planting. Two years later, when the SEVIA program ended, he reached out to EWS directly to continue learning bet ter techniques for his farm. The extension officer he worked with at the time convinced him to concentrate on tomato plants as a new starting

point for his farm. ‘I started with two grams of tomato IMARA F1 from EWS, and I produced 573 seedlings in 250 m2. I was impressed with what I could do on such a small patch. I had a lot of success by following the technical guide of field preparation that included trellising of crops, fol lowing fertilizer schedules, keeping up to date farm records, and applying what I learned about managing pests and diseases.’

As his tomatoes flourished, they turned into sales and a healthy profit. As time went by, he could expand to other vegetables and fruits, includ ing peppers, okra, cucumber, carrots, and watermelon.

Martin’s success and newfound farming knowledge spurred him on to share this with others. ‘Though this is a small farm, I succeeded in mobi lizing more than 136 farmers for training and experience sharing. Most of the people from that group have already adopted improved techniques in vegetable cultivation, and some have started setting up their fields.’

He is pleased that there have been many youths among those who took up the opportunity to learn about farming. Taking care of the land and working on land sustainably for the benefit of more people is what the father of three also wants to instill in his children as they grow up.

He still sees himself as a bridge builder and a connector of people, helping more farmers recognize how being part of a community makes them stronger in getting access to suppliers, new markets, and the techni cal expertise and support of the likes of the East-West Seed teams. It is the innate spirit of volunteerism kicking in.

Going forward, he would like to continue being able to help reach new farmers and to support established farmers to keep enhancing their skills, be more self-sufficient and grow to be agribusiness success stories. He also encourages East-West Seed to host more events and training work shops and to set up more demonstration farms to enlarge their footprint in the country. It’s the old SEVIA motto of ‘seeing is believing’ that he says is powerful in capturing people’s attention and letting them experience

the potential of farming for themselves.

His success has seen him able to build his own home for his wife and three children and to be a pillar of strength for his parents and extended family. He’s also put profits back into his farms. He has managed to install pumps and an irrigation system for increased efficiency because he used to have to employ extra farm laborers to water the crops by hand. He’s also branched out to farm chickens and is exploring market opportunities for new produce and looking into how he might be able to be part of an export food chain. ‘I’m hoping in the next few years to expand my farm and to be able to buy more farming equipment and to have more assets like a house that I can rent out.’

For Martin, the future is looking brighter, and he says he’s a living ex ample of what can be done with some capital, land, and labor and build ing the networks. ‘We know that the biggest challenge in our country is poverty, and we cannot wait for the government or donors to change the situation. We have to do this for ourselves, and farming is one simple, direct way to beat poverty and hunger.’

Agustinus, Indonesia

‘Because we live in a village, the most important thing is meeting the family’s daily vegetable needs.

Before the training by Yayasan Bina Tani Sejahtera and the help of East-West Seed Knowledge Transfer, I didn’t know how to take care of my plants properly. I can tell the difference between pests and diseases and apply fertilizers in the right way. If there is an excess supply of vegetables, we sell them and earn money. I hope that in the future, there will be many young people who will also become farmers to meet the need for local vegetables.’

Alfredo Paredes, Guatemala

‘Since the time of my great-great-grandparents my family has been dedicated to agriculture. So am I.

Sometimes things don’t work out the way you want. Agriculture taught me perseverance. Never give up on your goals or your dreams. There will be a reward in the end, it will always be worthwhile.

Seeing my fields in the evenings motivates me and makes me proud. And I am proud to give employment to the people of my town, that I help them to put food on their tables. It is important to me to not let down those who help me. That is my big satisfaction.’

Kajonsak Photakan

There are both good and bad memories for Tee Kajonsak Photakan of growing up on his family farm in the rural district of Photharam, Ratch aburi in Thailand.

Good memories were the harvesting times when friends and neigh bors would gather to help pick vegetables and prepare them for storage and the markets. Tee remembers that it was also when children in the community could come together and play while the adults were busy in the fields.

But there were also some less pleasant memories. ‘I remember as a kid sometimes when I asked my father for treats or candy, he would say he could not afford them because the middlemen had taken all his profits.’

Farming was a hard life, and Tee’s parents knew this, urging him not to follow in their footsteps but instead to study further. Tee did study, choosing the field of mechanics and engineering. After graduating, he opened an electric repairs shop. But after a few years in business, cheap electronics and appliances flooded the Thai market, upending his ‘secure career’. ‘It was cheaper for people to buy new appliances than to have them repaired in my shop, so I knew my business was not going to be sustainable,’ says Tee, who is now 34.

He returned to the family farm, helping his parents work their land. East-West Seed had long been his parents’ seed supplier and partner,

‘To our children’s children’

Kajonsak Photakan (Tee), Thailand

so he knew their solid reputation and established footprint across Asia. It would lead Tee to take up a job with the company in their marketing and promotions team.

‘In that role, I got to visit many different farms and meet many farm ers. Many of them encouraged me to return to being a full-time farmer, saying I should not wait to return to my village only when I retire. The farmers were willing to share their knowledge and experiences with me. I was also learning a lot about the modern techniques for smarter farm ing and the business side of farming through my East-West Seed work.’

By 2015, Tee was ready to leave his job at East-West Seed to become a full-time farmer. He continued to be a loyal buyer of EWS seeds, having had good ‘insider’ knowledge of the seeds and confidence in the partner support available for farmers. He started by planting two fields and chose a mix of vegetables. It included Chinese cabbage, eggplant, celery, and gai-laan (Chinese broccoli).

‘I prefer to plant different vegetables so that you always have some thing to sell and you are not dependent on seasonal harvests or the price fluctuations of different vegetables,’ he says.

He also keeps up his research on finding new markets to give farmers greater direct access to the end customer – the dreaded middleman can be cut out where possible.

Tee says modern-day farming has many opportunities not available to his parents. This should encourage a new generation of farmers to be come food growers. Now is the time to leverage these opportunities, be cause farming has become less labor intensive, more commercially viable, and can be sustainable for generations to come. He says the lessons of a global pandemic during the past two years should also be a wake-up call for people to grow their food for food security.

‘The older generation didn’t know the best farming methods. They didn’t do smart pest control and didn’t know how to use chemicals and

fertilizer in a managed way. Today farmers know how to use their net works, how to call on experts like those from EWS to get information, how to use the internet to do their research, and how to negotiate better with buyers.’

Tee says he’s also working to streamline his farming business while op timizing his harvests and ensuring his vegetables are of the highest qual ity.

‘The most difficult thing is to reduce costs, making sure you have a product that is in demand, so people want to buy it,’ he says. It means when he’s not out in the field, he’s exploring ways to expand his market, cut down external costs like those for transportation, and keep produce fresher for longer. He’s also put profits back into the business, for instance by installing an irrigation system so he could reduce labor costs in the long term.

It’s been paying off. Farming and raising his three-year-old son on the farm has become the good life that his parents imagined for him. ‘Suc cess for me is when my family and my parents are well taken care of and when they are happy – I can see my son enjoys being on the farm. Even the waterway on the farm is like his personal swimming pool,’ he says with a laugh.

As for his happiness, he admits that when he made his first profits from farming, he couldn’t resist treating himself. But not with the candy he asked for as a child. It was with a motorbike, one he always dreamed of owning and could now make a reality, all thanks to profits from farming.

Meet East-West Seed

Four decades ago, commercial vegetable breeding was unknown in the tropics. Smallholder farmers struggled to grow a good crop with seed that they saved from season to season. Dutch seedsman Simon Groot saw the potential for improved, high-quality vegetable seeds to make a meaningful difference to the livelihoods of smallholder farmers. In 1982 he started East-West Seed with business partner Benito Domingo and installed a team of Wageningen University graduates in The Netherlands and local plant breeders on a five-hectare farm near Lipa City in the Phil ippines. After years of experimental breeding they came up with hybrid varieties that were fast growing, high yielding, and resistant to local pests and diseases.

Today, East-West Seed globally employs over 3,500 staff. The familyowned company has its headquarters in Nonthaburi in Thailand, with offices in Indonesia, Tanzania, India, Cambodia, China, Vietnam, Myan mar, the Philippines, Malaysia, Guatemala, Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, Bangladesh, The Netherlands, and Brazil.

To help meeting the world’s growing demand for food and to improve the productivity of smallholder farmers, East-West Seed focuses on breed ing programs that include developing specific traits such as resistance to pests and diseases, tolerance to adverse conditions such as waterlogging,

‘A good seed can change the lives of millions’ – Simon Groot

drought, heat, and postharvest traits (e.g., shelf life, storability, fruit firm ness, transportability). East-West Seed offers 973 improved varieties of 60 vegetable crops.

It develops local crops with strong, cultural importance, vital to the livelihood of smallholder farmers in developing countries. East-West Seed has a large portfolio of hybrid varieties, and also runs an open-pollinated variety improvement program for crops such as mung bean, kangkong, coriander, palak beet, and various nutritious leafy vegetables. East-West Seed invests significantly in R&D to accelerate the development of inno vative seed varieties while expanding its product range and geographical reach throughout Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

East-West Seed’s seed production is for farmers, by farmers. East-West Seed trains, develops and manages more than 11,000 small to medium holder farmers in 9 countries as contract seed growers. These seed grow ers are now East-West Seed’s biggest suppliers, growing seeds on fields of less than 2000 m2 each. They produce more than four million kilograms of seeds on 6000 hectares, while providing a sustainable income for these communities.

High-performance seeds are the starting point for an entire value chain. Seed quality includes stringent devotion to genetic purity, seed pu rity, moisture content, germination, seed vigor, etc. East-West Seed labo ratories and seed technology add tremendous value to its customers, the smallholder farmers.

East-West Seed has promoted a local distribution network even for farmers in remote areas. A network of dealers and sub-dealers offers mostly value packs or small pouches of seeds. The specifically designed Value Pack range and the GoGrow range are affordable, encourage crop diversification and allow farmers to grow multiple crops together on a small patch of land. In these remote areas there are also East-West Seed promoters, who organize farmer meetings, training and field days.

‘I want to offer my congratulations to this year’s winner of the World Food Prize: Simon Groot. His work to bring high quali ty vegetable seeds to smallholder farmers deserves recognition. And I want to thank all of you for your incredible work to help the world’s farmers.’ Bill Gates 2019

‘Always listen to the farmers’

Interview with East-West Seed founder Simon Groot

Dr. Simon N. Groot, the founder of East-West Seed and 2019 World Food Prize laureate, is an inspiration to many in the seed industry for his trans formative role in empowering millions of smallholder farmers in more than 60 countries to earn higher incomes through enhanced vegetable production, benefiting hundreds of millions of consumers with greater access to nutritious vegetables for healthy diets.

A tête-a-tête with Simon.

On seedsmanship

‘It’s all about common sense and connecting the dots. The seed business is nothing if not connected. Seeds are produced and distributed locally, re gionally, and internationally. Seedsmanship is about understanding what can work in the global seed arena while understanding the needs of farm ers, traders, and consumers.

For instance, in Asia, the OP yardlong bean is very valuable. We have excellent varieties with good resistance properties. This can quickly be introduced in Africa. It grows so well in all parts of tropical Africa. It provides high-quality nutrition. It grows very well as a single crop. As

East-West Seed, we must seize the opportunity here. It’s also the crop of Southern India. Another crop is ridge gourd. We tackled the fungal disease resistance with a hybrid introduction in this category. India had never heard about hybrid ridge gourd. When we introduced it in India, our hybrid was very successful. Farmers in West India and Bangladesh accepted our East-West Seed ridge gourd hybrid.

It is this kind of exploratory thinking that forms the basis of seeds manship. This is even before thinking about the science part of it. So it is not all about business. It’s about meeting the needs of the farmer and the market partners. Now, we would like to maintain the image that we are true friends of the farmer.’

On technology

‘I am a common sense person and try to look at issues through the eyes of a farmer. I would tend to say: don’t go too far away with scientific op tions. At the same time, scientists have come up with many sophisticated technologies and theories. We have to think about these. To what extent does this scientific development impact value chain development? Does it create value?

That should not be our business, except in the R&D, who would look at it to see if it would create added value for the farmer. Do we need to consider whether these technological theories add commercial value? We need to realistically look at these theories and technologies on how we can improve the world.’

Asked what the future holds, Simon hardly pauses.

‘Looking at what has been done in these 40 years, we can already see that much more is possible. The development role of the seed business has

been underestimated. Reliable seed is the first 100% need that must be available before further development can take place. And who can pro vide that seed except for seed companies who get their revenues from the market and then plough those funds back into the breeding efforts in a structured, market-oriented way? The private sector approach yields far superior results to public development schemes. We provide varietal in novation, the farmers, supported by EWS Knowledge Transfer, provide improved farming systems, and the result can be, as we can now see, phe nomenal market growth and development.

After four decades, we now know this: if the team of plant breeders, seed producers, seed technologists, and field representatives do their jobs right, incredible and far-reaching market developments are bound to fol low.’

Moving forward

‘The superiority of hybrids versus open pollinated varieties in tropical vegetables has been very convincing regarding performance/cost ratios. Hybrids excel under adverse growing conditions. We have plenty of ad verse conditions in vegetable farming in the tropics, particularly with extreme temperatures and high relative humidity. I foresee a rapid devel opment of hybrids, especially in longer cycle Brassicas, such as white cab bage and Chinese cabbage, and in many local cucurbits and solanaceous crops. The hybrids will also permit a quick combination of available ge netic disease tolerance, which is the top priority of any tropical vegetable plant breeder.

Our 40-year experience taught us the lesson that “rainy season vegeta ble farming’’ turned out to be one of the major innovations. Both breeding the varieties for these difficult climatic conditions and the innovations in farming technologies (KT) have created major opportunities for farmer

income growth in South East Asia. Our early experiences in Africa are showing similar very promising results.

Simple mass selection and hybrid variety development hold the key. But they must be done with the knowledge of the specific needs of con sumers and the farmers. Plant breeding cannot be done in isolation – it requires a permanent dialogue with producers and consumers. The veg etable industry in general and the seed industry as an integral part of it can develop much faster with a solid institutional support system from the public sector.’

Next big project

‘We are excited at the prospect of exploring Africa to introduce more of our crops. It is so full of opportunity! The female farmers’ acceptance of Knowledge Transfer offers them some innovation to improve their lives and income. Our KT team has made significant headway. In Nigeria, for example, villages have come together to adopt KT practices for vegetable cultivation. It feels so good to see the acceptance of KT, mostly among female Nigerian farmers who face many challenges on the social and cul tural fronts. It is good to know that they can find their feet with vegetable farming.’

Message

‘Start recognizing that we are increasingly a company that needs all its internal capacities to develop skills. We need to look internally, link to what works best, and explore whether we could bring the same to another culture or region. This kind of integration is not easy but very beneficial in the long term. I’ve always believed we have a lot of knowledge and re sources within our own company that can be used adequately.’

Meet the East-West Seed Knowledge Transfer Foundation

– Simon Groot

For 20 years, East-West Seed has invested in farmer training. It focuses on profitable and sustainable vegetable production in smallholder commu nities. Trained farmers can often double their incomes and provide local areas with higher volumes of safe vegetables all year-round.

In 2016, EWS formalized its training model with the establishment of East-West Seed Knowledge Transfer Foundation (EWS-KT), a nonprofit organization, to showcase advanced farming practices and technologies to smallholder vegetable farmers struggling with poor yields in underde veloped markets. EWS-KT is active in nine countries in Asia and Africa and maintains a close cooperation with Wageningen University & Re search in the Netherlands.

EWS-KT offers extended and individualized training of key farmers, who implement improved farming techniques in their fields; hands-on training events for neighboring farmers, held at key farmers’ demonstra tion plots; and Field Days, which are training and networking events for farmers, community leaders, agro-input dealers, and others. Since 2015, EWS has trained approximately 529,000 farmers in 11 countries.

‘You have to share your knowledge if you want to make the world better.’

Women and youth

In many countries, women and young people are underrepresented in farming. EWS-KT leverages the dynamics of women and youth as small holder farmers.

EWS-KT’s goal is to increase youth participation so that at least 40 per cent of key farmers supported are below the age of 35. Active social and digital media engagement helps EWS-KT to connect with more young farmers and raise their interest in vegetable farming.

To encourage gender balance and active engagement of women at training events and to ensure that new horticultural knowledge is effec tively spread within the community, the goal is to ensure that 50 percent of the key farmers supported are women. Radio programs with female presenters and dedicated women-only caller lines help to increase par ticipation by women farmers.

Outreach

Since 2015, EWS-KT has increased its outreach to more than 5 million people through social media, podcasts, YouTube, and other platforms, as well as traditional media outlets such as radio. Radio is particularly effective for reaching farmers in rural, low-literate, internet-poor areas. EWS-KT continues to expand its radio presence in Africa, with a weekly call-in show in Nigeria accessible to more than 2.5 million listeners. Local Facebook and WhatsApp groups spread farming advice and build online communities of local smallholder farmers and partners to increase knowl edge sharing and connectivity. EWS-KT’s global Facebook and LinkedIn accounts reach broader global partners and external audiences.

EWS-KT continuously explores ways to reach smallholder farmers through mobile and digital-platforms. As many farmers in rural areas use

traditional cell phones rather than smartphones, EWS-KT is also explor ing options to share technical content through SMS. A Tanzania-based pilot enables farmers to learn improved production techniques for five different crops, with all lessons delivered via SMS.

To support this, EWS-KT launched a public dashboard to monitor and analyze data collected by technical teams, using a mobile app. Interac tive maps enable access to farm records and cost-return data for different crops over different seasons. These data allow farmers to see the variance in cost and returns and make appropriate business decisions.

Partners

While East-West Seed provides funding for operational costs, EWS-KT also seeks co-investment from like-minded organizations. EWS-KT de velops partnerships with local organizations, private-sector parties, nongovernmental organizations, technology companies, financial access organizations, and academic institutions. Across its projects, EWS-KT has maintained a long-term partnership with Wageningen University & Research.

EWS-KT has launched several exciting projects with new partners fo cused on women’s leadership and poverty reduction in Cambodia, liveli hood and food security in Indonesia, community economic empower ment in Myanmar, horticultural skills training and mobile phone based learning in Nigeria, coffee and vegetable intercropping in the Philippines, expansion of pumpkin growing in Uganda. EWS-KT endeavors to reach 1 million farmers in the next five years, with a focus on building resilient livelihoods and nutritional security.

40 Years of East-West Seed

Establishment of East-West Seed Co Inc

First trials in Hortanova Farm Batangas

First successful commercial vegetable hybrid (bitter gourd) developed in Southeast Asia

Establishment of East West Seed Co Ltd in Nonthaburi

First trials at Lert Phan Farm, Chiangmai

First varieties released

First varieties released

First hybrid released (bitter gourd, pumpkin, eggplant, tomato)

First hybrid released

Incorporation of PT East West Seed Indonesia in West Java First lowland trials, Surakarta, West Java

First trials at Cuchi Farm, Ho Chi Minh

Plant pathology and tissue cell culture laboratory opens

Establishment of Hortigenetics Research (SE Asia) Ltd. headquarters in Chiangmai

Establishment of East West Seed International Ltd in Nonthaburi as export vehicle and regional liaison company

Establishment of Green & Clean Vegetable Ltd. in Pak Chong for seedling production

Establishment of East West Seeds India Private Ltd in Aurangabad, sales and marketing office

Establishment of Regional Operating Headquarters Establishment of representative office and research station in Nanning, Guangxi

Acquisition of Semillas Tropicales, Guatemala

Joint venture with Grow Group for seedling distribution

East West Seeds India marks its first decade

East West Seed Indonesia celebrates its 25th year

Establishment of Group-wide Foundation

East West Seed ranks #1 in the Access to Seeds Index

New headquarters building opens in Bang Bua Thong

Establishment of fully-owned company

Establishment of fully-owned distribution subsidiary

East-West Seed celebrates 35 years

Launching of GROW 5 Year Strategic Plan

Establishment of International Headquarters (IHQ) and International Trading Center (ITC)

East-West Seed is ranked #1 in the South and Southeast Asia Index by Access to Seeds

Establishment of fully owned distribution company

Completion of a seed processing plant in Yangon

Simon N. Groot receives the World Food Prize

Signing of distribution agreement with Advanced Chemical Industries (ACI) in Bangladesh

Establishment of East West Seed Bangladesh Private Ltd

First varieties released

First hybrid released (eggplant)

First highland trials, Lembang, West Java

Establishment of East West Seed (Vietnam) Co., Ltd In Ho Chi Minh

First hybrid released (tomato)

Plant pathology and tissue cell culture laboratory opens

Opening of processing plant

Establishment of NaMa Genetics Trading Ltd

Afrisem breeding program founded with Rijk Zwaan

Establishment of East West Seed (Tanzania) Ltd

Farm Ready was set up for seedling production

Set up of a local company

Establishment of representative office in Siem Reap, Cambodia

Establishment of East West Seed (Hai Mui Ten Do) Ltd., Binh Duong

Hortigenetics Agri sciences (Nanning) Co., Ltd

Establishment of East West Seed Yuma LLC

Opening of Corn Processing Plant in Suphanburi

East West Seed Philippines cele brates its 30th year

SEVIA public private partnership launch

East West Seed Thailand celebrates its 30th year

East-West Seed ranks #28 out of 53 in FORTUNE’s Change the World list of global companies that are “doing well by doing good.”

East-West Seed ranks #1, #2 and #3 on Acess to Seeds Index for South and Southeast Asia, Western and Central Africa, and Eastern and Southern Africa

Establish Farm Lert Phan 2, Thailand (Propose of LP2)

Establishment of East-West Seed Brazil in São Paulo, Brazil

East-West Seed Women Farmers’ Study

40 years of East-West Seed

First trials at Linda Vista Farm, Bulacan

‘Serving farmers by challenging ourselves’

Interview with Douwe Zijp, Global CEO, East-West Seed

What does innovation mean to East-West Seed today?

‘East-West Seed is a truly unique company. We have come a long way. The innovative spirit that continues to sustain and ignite us is at the heart of everything we do. For me, at this point, innovation is to focus on two significant areas. One is Research and Development, in which a lot can be achieved from classical breeding by better understanding farmers’ needs and coming up with products that are needed in the market. As planned in the PACE strategy (Pioneering, Accountable, Caring, Enduring), we are planning to increase our R&D budget from 11% to 15 %. So that more financial resources will be available for our teams to experiment with new breeding technologies and focus on bringing out new products and va rieties with better abiotic stress and disease resistance that are climate resilient.

On the other hand, innovation is all about how effectively we bring in new processes and ways of working. Whether it is better machinery in our plants or implementing the LEAP projects – we are looking at various

elements to make us more agile and efficient.

In the long term, under the PACE strategy, we plan to focus on geo expansion, agronomic focus, digital farming, and other value-added ac tivities for the farmers.’

How will EWS accelerate innovation and create value today for the long-term benefit of smallholder farmers?

‘We must realize that business-as-usual will not work. We need to build on the successes of the past. We must view vegetable farming with a multifunctional approach. On the one hand, we need to continue to encour age smallholder farmers to adopt commercially viable crops while, on the other hand, nudging them to adopt agro-ecological approaches and appropriate technologies. Another aspect we focus on is local crops that can help integrate local and traditional knowledge, resulting in products suitable for specific geographies.

We have many crops in our portfolio, for instance the leafy crops in Asia. Our Brazilian Hortec acquisition has brought in new products, such as lettuce varieties focused on Latin America, which has good market po tential. We are also looking at the use of hydroponic crops. The segment is still small in the tropical area, but I am sure it will grow very well in the coming years, for two reasons. One, the quality of the produce is better, and two, less inputs are needed. I am sure we can play a part in this.’

Climate change extremes have become day-to-day reality. How will East-West Seed contribute to mitigating this risk and help promote sustainable agricultural practices?

‘According to published reports, agriculture is responsible for about 17% of GHG emissions in India. Three-fourths of this is due to the methane

produced from rice cultivation and livestock, and the remaining 26% comes from nitrous oxide from fertilizers. The share of agriculture in total GHG emissions will increase significantly if crop residue is burnt, which is now spreading to all states.

Water-intensive crops are grown in low rainfall areas, spreading wa ter-intensive practices. Free or subsidized power for agriculture and free water for irrigation encourage excessive water use and do not provide any water-saving incentive. Therefore, groundwater resources are get ting depleted in almost all states. We’re promoting crop diversification, countering the resource-depleting mono-culture practices still applied in many of our markets. We are also training our farmers in climate-smart agriculture.’

How has East-West Seed embraced digital agriculture?

‘The world is rapidly changing, and East-West Seed is adopting innova tive farming approaches to stay ahead. From climate change to increasing food and nutrition demands, our challenges require accurate data to en able more creative and practical actions.

East-West Seed has initiated Digital Plant Breeding, Greenhouse Au tomation using IoT and AI, monitoring and evaluation by East-West KT, digitalization of sales and marketing activities, and digitalization of seed production processes in the field.’

How do you envision including women farmers in building a sustain able future?

‘Empowering women farmers is the key to the future. Closing the global gender gap in agriculture would significantly boost food production and build sustainable futures for all of us. East-West Seed is working with

many partners worldwide to train women in vegetable farming on vari ous continents, such as Asia and Africa, which can help them earn extra income and self-reliance.’

What are your expectations from your team, EWS employees, and ex ternal stakeholders to help realize your vision?

‘East-West Seed’s success is built on our people. We all want to focus on working together and developing a team-based environment in EWS across geographies. It requires some work from the country’s leadership team to set the right example. The essential building block to developing an effective team is communication, so it is imperative to develop the best possible environment to communicate effectively with each other. Help ing our employees understand how all of the functions work together as a team adds to the business and is part of telling that big-picture story. It’s principally tied to their individual contributions, which – even when physically apart – can contribute to the greater good. Personal motiva tion from everyone at EWS means more success for all of us in the long run. We are all committed to our mission of providing innovative prod ucts and services that will help increase farmers’ income and promote the growth and quality of the vegetable farming industry.’

A delivery during a flood

For more about East-West Seed visit: www.eastwestseed.com

Credits and acknowledgements

40 Farmers - 40 Years of East-West Seed

On the cover a photo collage of 40 farmer champions of East-West Seed from all over the world. This book is a tribute to farmers. We celebrate their journey with us and their relentless efforts to uplift their standards of living by feeding their families and their com munities.

Editorial Team Ananda UVL, Leah Melita de Ocampo-de Guzman, Sariyaporn Srisuksawad, Lalita Rangsimarangrak, Maaike Groot

Farmer selection Brendan Roane

Coordination East-West Seed sales & marketing, East-West Seed Knowledge Transfer Foundation country teams

Author of farmer stories Ufrieda Ho

Photography East-West Seed and East-West Seed archives

Photo Simon Groot on page 163 Duco de Vries

Layout, color grading, and design Martinus Meiborg

Proofing Niek Miedema

Editor Louise Koopman

Printed by Pragati Art Printers, India

Copyright © 2022 by East-West Seed

All rights reserved. This publication or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of

East-West Seed.

50/1 Moo 2, Sainoi-Bangbuathong Road, Sainoi, Nonthaburi, Thailand

This book celebrates 40 years of East-West Seed: 1982-2022. What started as a simple idea has become an incredible adventure. Meanwhile, for 40 years, our farmers have done the hard work, it is time to honor them. In this book 40 farmers represent the approximately 23 million farmers worldwide that grow seeds from East-West Seed. They share their experience and their knowledge. Enjoy their stories, we hope to keep working together towards a bright future!