Of the special forces to be piloting in our country the business of one of the agrotechnological giants of the planet. Ronan de Hercé has run Syngenta Iberia for three years, which in a few months will open in the ejido a new innovation center that will be the company’s world reference in crops such as tomato, pepper or zucchini.
To Ronan de Hercé the “passion” for agriculture comes from cradle. He was born and grew up on his parents’ farm in France and since then he has always followed the problems facing farmers “In his honorable mission of feeding the world”. The possibility of gaining experience in team leadership while putting at the service of “another great purpose, serving my country”, led him to be part of the French army for 7 years as a captain.
With the leadership skills acquired in his military stage, he focused on the agricultural sector, and after carrying out an MBA, he stressed in Syngenta “whose personal development values and opportunities seemed perfectly aligned to me with my ambition,” he says. It has been in “this great company for 12 years, with the fate of leading the best teams in the industry.”
Globally, Syngenta has more than 60,000 employees in 124 countries and invests more than 1.4 billion euros in R&D to offer new solutions and products that support modern agriculture thanks to genetics, crop protection and digitalization.
After three years, knowing the sector, Hercé stands out from Spanish agriculture “the diversity of crops its high exposure to climate change and The strong resilience that the Spanish producer has, capable of reinventing itselfboth adopting innovation and thinking about changing from one crop to another. “
For the manager of the agrotechnological giant, “Spain plays a laboratory role of many of our innovations. We are pioneers in many of the innovation projects that Syngenta carries, but from afar. And sometimes I am afraid that we are going too much ahead of the others “, Affirms with laughter. This prominence of our country in the company’s R&D strategy is not only because of the diversity of crops, also because of “the dynamism” of farmers. There is interest, curiosity, competition, skills that are not easy to find in other places “he says.
Two R&D centers have been representing the company’s commitment for our country in horticultural crops: in La Puebla (Murcia) and El Ejido (Almería). In the latter, an investment of 9.6 million euros is materializing. “We are in the final phase of construction and we will try to inaugurate it at the end of this year. The project involves concentrating all the investment we make in horticultural seed in a center to be a global reference. The very high Expertise that Spain has horticultural crops In general, and in which Syngenta is a leader. And we wanted to give Almeria capital about that, something that will not stop. There will be new jobs with a strong incorporation of staff and will benefit our customers, farmers, distributors, who will be able to come, see, touch. It is first -hand innovation. We have to be able to invite the entire food chain to develop products adapted to their wishes. There will also be many synergies with the rest of the business we have in Spain in terms of phytosanitary, biological or digitalization. I have a lot of confidence, “he says.
Hercé puts in parentheses the latest campaigns in Spain, in which drought has decimated productions. “The farmer has not spent much on essential supplies and that we also notice it almost in the same way in terms of income. When the sector suffers, we also suffer. “
The environmental sustainability of agriculture is one of the pillars on which Syngenta pivotes with the commitment to innovation for the development of phytosanitary “of much more friendly profiles” and of new biological solutions, a business for which one or two launches a year After growing 23% in the last year.
A rapid path for biological
Hercé asks in this regard “a fast track, a fast road” to bring to the market those biological products before a classic one. “What we ask is to speed up when we have certainties Because the farmer is pending these innovations. Many times we see products that are already being used in other parts of the world, but not for six months, but for years. “
The slowness of European regulation also extends to agrochemicals. In this sense, the manager is able to work more hand in hand with the new community managers, “especially for a matter of Timing”, after the holes in competitiveness in agriculture that brought to light reports such as Draghi’s. “With the ministry I used the metaphor that we are on a bridge and yesterday’s solutions will not be tomorrow, but we have to endure with them, improving them, until the future arrives. It takes time to contribute these bio innovations and complement them With the digital, which is also a fundamental issue. The farmer must be helped to endure with a reliable toolbox. “
Digitization is another of the backbone of the vision of new agriculture. “Being more sustainable tomorrow in the application of a phytosanitary product requires knowing where, how, when and how much it has to be applied. And that goes through the use of digital tools. The knowledge of before a farmer who knows his plot very well, now, With the generational relief, we have the risk of losing it. The digital theme is what allows us to move from one place to another. “
In this sense, the company wants to train its 150 distributors in Spain to act as 2.0 advisors in digitalization. “We can reach any farmer anywhere.”
Syngenta is a pioneer in applying artificial intelligence in the agricultural world. “We will allow us It will allow to reduce the administrative burden derived from the legal requirements, a fair claim of the sector “.
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