Two key features that made us special
With the Foundation closing soon in Switzerland, we are preparing a book about our work over the past decades. Among the many contributors is Gabrielle Persley*, a partner in several African programs over many years. This text is an extended version of her book chapter. As well as looking back, Gabrielle also looks forward – for example, to working with our successor organizations.
“The Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture (SFSA) holds a unique position in the patchwork tapestry of agencies supporting food and agriculture in the developing world. Two key features made SFSA one of the outstanding partners with whom I have worked in Africa over the past 20 years. These are:
The ability to mobilize private sector perspectives and expertise, and to bring these to bear on the challenges of making small-scale agriculture more productive, profitable and sustainable for millions of farming families and their communities.
Willingness to take risks and invest in research to which we do not know the answers.
Two initiatives in Africa provide examples.
Feature 1
Mobilizing private sector perspectives and expertise for the benefit of emerging economies
SFSA played a critical role between 2002 and 2015 in the design, construction and operations of Biosciences eastern and central Africa (BecA). This center of excellence was set up with a shared research platform available to African and international scientists. It is located at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Nairobi, the “BecA ILRI Hub”.
The first SFSA Executive Director, Andrew Bennett (see photo), initiated support in 2002. SFSA provided financial support for the design phase, with similar support from three like-minded organizations. These were the Gatsby Trust, and the Doyle and Rockefeller Foundations.
Andrew also seconded a senior Syngenta scientist to help. Andres Binder was well versed in the design, construction and management of corporate bioscience facilities. He visited Nairobi frequently between 2002 and 2012. Andres describes some of his experiences in the legacy SFSA book mentioned above. His knowledge of ‘how to make laboratories work’ was critical input for the Beca-ILRI team. It helped them design, construct and run laboratories for animal and plant scientists. This intelligent design ensured that a large Canadian grant for BecA’s construction was wisely spent.
Support to BecA continued under the second SFSA Executive Director, Marco Ferroni. SFSA provided an annual operations grant from 2010-2014. Marco also encouraged Andres Binder’s continued scientific advisory role to BecA Directors Segenet Kelemu and Appolinaire Djikeng, and to ILRI leaders Carlos Sere and John McDermott. Appolinaire pays tribute to SFSA in the legacy book.
Early support from SFSA helped BecA tap into investments by the governments of Australia, Canada, Sweden, the UK and USA. Philanthropic organizations also got involved, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Their investments were joined by valuable contributions from the government of ILRI’s host country Kenya. Together, they enabled BecA to realize its declared mission “to mobilize biosciences for Africa’s development”.
Examples of the success of the BecA mission include the achievements of more than 400 alumni. These African scientists conducted research at BecA on their countries’ priority problems in agriculture. Scientific and financial support came from BecA’s African Biosciences Challenge Fund (ABCF).
External reviews of BecA’s Fellowships and capacity-building program show that the overwhelming majority of these ABCF Fellows benefited from their time at BecA. They made scientific discoveries, generated agricultural innovations, and wrote high-quality publications. Most BecA alumni are now pursuing their careers in Africa, as scientists, university faculty and agricultural research leaders.
Feature 2
Willingness to take risks, and invest in research to which we do not know the answers
A hallmark of SFSA’s initial investments under Andrew Bennett was a willingness to take risks, and to engage in new areas which other agencies were unwilling to explore. His successors Marco Ferroni and Simon Winter continued this approach. In the SFSA legacy book, all three Directors describe their eras in detail.
This second success feature is exemplified by SFSA support for Demand-led Breeding in Africa, DLB. (SFSA’s other unique feature of mobilizing private sector expertise also helped: It gave the DLB program access to Syngenta expertise in plant breeding and seed systems).
DLB is an initiative supported by a Food Security Alliance, formed by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), the Crawford Fund and SFSA in 2014. This public-private partnership started during Marci Ferroni’s tenure as Director and continued under Simon Winter, in collaboration with the CEOs of ACIAR and the Crawford Fund.
The DLB program aims to increase the adoption of modern plant varieties in Africa. A 2014 study of 30 crops across 20 African countries showed an average adoption rate of only 30%. DLB partners believe there is a clear explanation for farmers’ low adoption: Most new varieties do not meet either their needs or consumer preferences. For example, many are not suited to rapidly changing climates. Farmers need crops that tolerate heat and drought better than conventional varieties.
SFSA’s Senior Scientific Advisor, Viv Anthony, brought private sector approaches to plant variety design. Seed companies place major emphasis on understanding consumer preferences and market opportunities. Their findings feed into the design phase of new varieties. Breeders list the desirable traits in a Product Profile. This document guides development of varieties that are better than those previously in use. Companies also use a “stage gate” approach to decide which new varieties to take forward. Each breeding program has several stop/go decision points.
A team of African educators built the key elements of DLB into a syllabus. Numerous African universities now use this material in their post-graduate courses for breeders. In 2017, Viv Anthony and I published this syllabus as a textbook: The Business of Plant Breeding – Market-led plant variety design in Africa.
The program has also created a Community of Practice. Some 500 plant breeders are now applying DLB principles to their work in African universities and national plant breeding programs. They are developing new varieties important for food, nutrition and climate resilience across the continent. The varieties are becoming available to farmers through seed system programs such as SFSA’s Seeds2B.
Looking to the future
As SFSA closes in Switzerland, its programs in Africa and Asia are moving into new local entities. These organizations will benefit from the Foundation’s legacy: knowledge and experience built up over many years, successful programs, and the people SFSA has supported in many developing countries.
I hope that these emerging entities will be able to foster new public-private partnerships, including with the increasing number of small and medium-sized enterprises, for example in the seed sector.
I also hope that the new organizations will follow SFSA’s example and be willing to take some risks in supporting local entrepreneurs and early-stage innovations. Even modest early investments can be very hard to find. They are, however, the most critical factor in the successful translation of an idea into an innovation that benefits millions of smallholders. Such successes can have multiple social and economic impacts. All it takes is the first step by someone willing to take a risk. SFSA leaders were prepared to do that. May their successors follow a similar path.
Between 2002 and 2024, I worked with three Executive Directors (Andrew Bennett, Marco Ferroni, and Simon Winter), and two Scientific Advisors (Viv Anthony and Andres Binder), often for lengthy periods. I learned a lot from each of them, and am very grateful for their patience, encouragement and long-term support. I now look forward to working with SFSA colleagues in Africa such as Tony Gathungu and Ian Oduk in their new organizations. I wish you speed and strength in your new endeavors!”
*Professor Gabrielle Persley AM, School of Agriculture and Food Sustainability, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Brisbane, Australia