Syngenta may look to increase manufacturing under Make in India: CEO

Rowe talks about Syngenta's strong presence in India for a long time

Basel, Switzerland-based Syngenta has had a strong presence in India for a long time. In an interview with Business Standard, its CEO Jeff Rowe lays down some growth plans. Edited excerpts:

Your presence in India is pretty varied, right? Do you do manufacturing here?

Well, we have third-party manufacturing. We do formulation, we do some breeding. So we do have some facilities, but our industry, as you know, is very, very local. We have to have a global presence and a global network, and we also have to be relevant to local farmers.

What are your plans for ‘Make in India’? Some of your colleagues spoke about it at an event yesterday.

The Prime Minister is encouraging companies to make stuff in India. So, I mean, we do third-party manufacturing here. We do formulations here. We do plant breeding here. We do plant selection. We do some seed production. So, we have already a pretty significant footprint in India of made-in-India. Now, of course, we're a big company. We have lots of different supply chains. So, we're also importing into India. So, it's a combination of import and made-in-India.

So do you plan to increase that make-in-India part in India?

Yeah, I mean, as the business grows, it's logical that the footprint and the manufacturing would have to grow as well. And that's a trend that we are seeing again, particularly in the manufacturing of active ingredients and crop protection. We're seeing India become a much more important manufacturer. 

Okay. So globally, have you transitioned from being a third-party manufacturer to manufacturing locally as well in any country?

No, we're not transitioning away from third-party manufacturing. What I'm saying is that as our volumes grow and as we partner with Indian manufacturers, and third-party Indian manufacturers, our manufacturing footprint in India will get bigger.

One big challenge in India is a lot of regulatory issues, right? So how do you adjust to that?

Well, it's a big problem, not just in India, but it is a problem in other jurisdictions in the world. It is one thing that I think governments should start paying more attention to because it is a very long and burdensome process to get new products approved. And if you talk to farmers who are on the front lines, who are dealing with issues, there's not much more frustrating situation for a farmer than when they know that there is a solution that is being applied by other farmers in other parts of the world, but it can't be used in this country or other countries because of delayed regulatory systems. So, it's a very important issue that we feel needs to be addressed because the longer it takes for products to be registered—not because of legitimate safety and environmental evaluations, but just the bureaucratic part of it—that has a real cost for farmers when they're dealing with insects that are constantly evolving, they're dealing with diseases, they're dealing with weather extremes.

Do you think digitisation can help in clearing those regulatory hurdles?

Yes, I do. I think digitisation can help. We're working on digitisation and using things like artificial intelligence to improve the quality and speed of our data collection and our data submission to the regulatory process. I also think that data analytics, digitisation, and artificial intelligence on the regulator side could help speed up the process as well.

A lot of people are talking about natural farming. Do you think it can be a solution to meet food security needs?

I would describe that as a niche. There's a niche for that type of farming. If we are serious as a society about food security and climate change, you have to be able to produce more on every hectare or acre of land. There's no question that if you farm in that way with no chemistry and no fertiliser, your production is going to go down. Once the productivity of land goes down, two things have to happen. You have to bring in more land, so you have to start tilling new land, which is bad for the environment. The second thing is that you have to do a lot of tillage on that farm. You have to use ploughs and end up disturbing the soil.

One other question is on this global debate on herbicide-tolerant crops…

Again, I think it's an important tool. Certain herbicide-tolerant crops create a real positive impact on both farmers and the environment. I do recognise that there's concern about overuse of chemicals and there's concern about resistance that can develop. These are all things that can be managed through appropriate weed-resistant management approaches as well as more reasonable application rates. In other words, because of some of those bad practices, I wouldn't throw out the technology, because I think the technology is game-changing for farmers.

One question I also have is on genome editing. Does it solve the problems generated due to climate change and is it an alternative to transgenic?

No, it's another tool, and it's an important tool, but I wouldn't describe it as, again, it's not a magic bullet. It's not going to do magical things, but it does speed up the process.

Of late, there are a lot of partnerships happening between ICAR and other private companies. Do you think it's the right approach?

No question about it.

So what is your outlook for Syngenta in India?

Well, really, we have got a very diverse business in India. We have businesses in many of our segments: crop protection, biologicals, row crops, field crops, seeds, and vegetables. Our ADAMA business, which is our generic crop protection business, has a nice presence in India. And, frankly, I expect to see growth in all those areas.