A seemingly ordinary tomato seed, equipped with Syngenta’s innovation, can make a difference for the entire value chain — farmers, retailers, and consumers worldwide. From virus resistance to shelf life, from greenhouse cultivation to traceability, Syngenta’s tomato seeds are ensuring farmers are ready to face new threats while helping them increase their yield.
At first glance, the price tags on these seeds may raise eyebrows, ranging from as little as $2 for a thousand seeds – varieties with limited technology – to thousands of dollars for the same quantity of high-tech varieties carrying novel traits, such as stronger yield potential and disease resistance. These varieties also have additional qualities such as longer shelf life, appearance and better taste.
″To the average person, these seeds might seem costlier than gold, but to growers they represent exceptional value,″ says Arthur van Marrewijk, Syngenta Vegetable Seeds Product Specialist.
Productive and Resilient
“A single tomato seed has the potential to yield up to 75 kilograms of tomatoes. What’s more, they can be cultivated for eleven months of the year in controlled greenhouse environments, helping to ensure consistent quality and taste with every harvest,” says Arthur van Marrewijk.
However, looming over this promise is the shadow of viruses that are spreading wider around the agricultural world due to increasing global trade and transportation of goods. Another factor is climate change, which has brought warmer and wetter climates that provide a more conducive environment for pathogens to grow.
One of these viruses is the tomato brown rugose fruit virus (ToBRFV), a fast-spreading pathogen that emerged in 2015 and nowadays threatens tomato production worldwide. Greenhouses, where much of the world’s tomato cultivation has shifted in the last decade, are hit particularly hard. In its wake, farmers are losing 20-30 percent of their tomato harvests on average, and, in the worst-case scenario, their entire crop.
The virus continues to spread despite stringent phytosanitary management measures by growers and seed companies, such as rotation, disinfection of seeds, eradication of infected plants and chemical treatment of contaminated greenhouses. To date, ToBRFV has been reported in at least 35 countries across Asia, Europe, North America and Africa.
