Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture new office in China

On July 13, 2018, the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture (SFSA) China branch was successfully registered in China under the supervision of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Agriculture.

Prior to this official registration, SFSA conducted a China Scoping Study and held a workshop on May 25 in Beijing, with participants from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science (CAAS), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Syngenta and ChemChina. The purpose of this meeting was to identify smallholder needs and opportunities in several agriculturally under-developed provinces.

Following that, key interventions areas were identified:

Water
Soil
Cash crops
Post-harvest & processing
Market linkages
Food safety & quality
Rural financing

Potential partners for future cooperation were also identified including local governments, agricultural cooperatives, agribusiness & food companies, national and local research institutes, and agricultural platform companies.

China program investigation

Dr. Simon Winter (Executive Director) , Dr. Yuan Zhou (Head of Agricultural Policy and China Program ), and Tony Tong (China Program Director), visited Gulang County and Dingxi City, Gansu Province several times in the course of 2018, investigating and exploring the role that the SFSA should play in poverty alleviation and smallholder agricultural development. Dr. Winter also visited Sinochem Group and ChemChina Group in Beijing and met the leadership team of the Groups to introduce Foundation work and discuss the possibility of cooperation between the parties.

Current activities

An agricultural program in Gansu province was initiated in 2018. The goal is to increase agricultural productivity and quality, and income opportunities of small-scale farmers in project locations. The scope of work is described below. In 2019, we continue to support relevant activities on potato, vegetable and goji-berry crops in Gansu province. We plan to launch a new project focusing on improving kiwi fruit production and market linkages in Sichuan province.