Corteva set to bolster grain safety, digital push

Corteva Agriscience, a US-based agricultural chemical and seed company, said it would strengthen its efforts in China to help boost agricultural seed breeding sector and maintain national grain security.

To that end, Corteva will continue investing in China and deepen its partnerships with local players.

The company boasts more than half of the seed resources worldwide. It said it is determined to further tap the potential of the Chinese market through more collaborations with domestic players.

Corteva will also continue helping local farmers raise their production and efficiency, said Alec Zheng, president of Corteva Agriscience Greater China, in an interview with China Daily.

China's recently released its annual No 1 document, which lays out top-level design and systematic deployment aimed at strengthening the breeding industry, providing massive opportunities for companies like Corteva, Zheng said.

The trend is only expected to gain more momentum as the country's rural regions embrace a more complete digital infrastructure, Zheng said.

The document, released in February, encourages new technologies to achieve better breeding and suggests stronger protection of intellectual property rights in breeding as well as a sound commercial breeding system with a group of leading seed companies.

Zheng said he believes agricultural digitalization is the future of Chinese agriculture and the company will continue collaborating with major local players in China to achieve a big scale of operations.

Corteva Agriscience, which was spun off from DowDuPont in 2019, has set up a 20:80 joint venture with Sichuan-based Lier Chemical last year to deepen the cooperation between the two sides.

The Corteva-Lier joint venture will help the former to expand its business scale, enhance competitiveness and gain comprehensive strength across all sectors of the industry, Zheng added.

The venture is expected to give full play to the advantages of both sides in terms of resources, market, technology, production and other aspects, which is in line with the company's development strategy.

Corteva currently is cooperating with 14 local firms in China and is looking forward to more collaborations with local partners to ensure market competitiveness for further innovation and development, said Zheng.

Compared with advanced countries, China's seed industry has a lot of ground to make up. Analysts expect more international cooperation in the sector in the coming years.

Li Guoxiang, a research fellow in the agricultural sector at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said talent exchanges between China and other countries will continue in China's march to build a modern breeding system.

The company has set up its regional headquarters in Shanghai last year. It will look after business and investment in the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Macao, with life sciences, digitalized policies and technology as focus areas, the company said earlier.

Jim Collins, CEO of Corteva, said during the China Development Forum last week that the country has made substantial progress in ensuring grain security.

The country has also made substantial progress in intellectual property rights as well as in promoting biotechnology breeding.

It is highly likely that China will increase investment in technology and innovation, he said.