Meet East-West Seed

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

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 Philippines. 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, Myanmar, 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 breeding programs that include developing specific traits such as resistance to pests and diseases, tolerance to adverse conditions such as waterlogging,

drought, heat, and postharvest traits (e.g., shelf life, storability, fruit firmness, 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 innovative 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 growers 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 purity, moisture content, germination, seed vigor, etc. East-West Seed laboratories 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 quality 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