Our Mission
To create value for resource-poor small farmers in developing countries through innovation in sustainable agriculture and the activation of value chains.
Our Strategy
The operational strategy of the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture (SFSA*) focuses on smallholders, productivity, and markets.
The Foundation works with partners in developing countries and emerging markets. Our aim is to help small farmers become more professional growers. We do this by extending science-based know-how, facilitating access to quality inputs, and linking smallholders to markets in profitable ways. This adds value for rural communities, and sustainably improves food security.
Improving smallholders' livelihoods
By helping small farmers become more professional growers, we want to achieve added value for rural communities, and improve food security in sustainable ways.
Smallholders produce part of their own food needs, and a surplus that helps feed their countries and supply international markets. With the right kinds of agricultural technologies and supporting services such as extension, credit, and microinsurance, smallholders could increase their production significantly and sustainably. In the process, they would improve their own food security and that of their communities and countries. ‘Inclusive’ agricultural growth would be promoted, the fundamental basis for equitable economic development.
The Syngenta Foundation focuses on productivity and the inclusion of farmers in remunerative value chains. The focus is on ‘pre-commercial’ farmers, often in semi-arid areas, who display potential for agricultural growth. The Foundation runs projects in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and contributes to the agricultural policy debate worldwide. It works with a wide range of partners operationally and in thought leadership. The Foundation engages, for example, the public sector, international organizations, think tanks, the private sector, other foundations, social entrepreneurs, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). As well as establishing pilot projects, the Foundation also puts major emphasis on successful scale-up.
The Foundation invests in sustainable improvements in farm yields, and helps small farmers earn income from their produce. The productivity of primary production factors such as labor, land, and water is a major concern, as is total factor productivity. Investments in plant science and product delivery systems - such as strengthened national seed industries - underpin the productivity goal. So do credit systems, index insurance, and market links for grains, pulses and high-value products and crops.
We complement our agricultural extension projects with a portfolio of partnerships in advanced crop science. The Foundation additionally works to create ‘enabling conditions’ in the form of improved regulatory frameworks, stewardship capacity, financial, and risk transfer tools, biodiversity conservation, and land improvement funded by carbon finance. It also conducts policy studies and outreach in a growing range of domains.