Hengde Qin, Chief Financial Officer of Syngenta Group, spoke to CGTN Europe about the future of agriculture in the digital era. He said Syngenta is investing heavily in AI and data-driven solutions to promote sustainable farming in China - one of the company’s key markets. With China’s expanding rural infrastructure and 5G connectivity, Syngenta is partnering with local startups to accelerate digitalisation and better serve farmers’ needs. As a global leader in agricultural innovation, the company aims to shape the future of farming through strong partnerships, while addressing major challenges such as climate change and geopolitical uncertainty.
00:00A career in agriculture is challenging, as any farmer will tell you.
00:04Throw in climate change and the vital business of growing food gets even tougher.
00:09But Chinese agri-tech leader Syngenta is using AI and data to manage the challenges of sustainable farming.
00:17It's just signed over a billion dollars worth of deals at China's international import fair.
00:22CGTN spoke to Hongda Chin, the CFO of the Syngenta Group.
00:26China actually is one of the most strategic markets for Syngenta Group.
00:35So right now in China, the green development has become a consensus among the local government, farmers and the consumers.
00:47This also encouraged Syngenta Group to develop more cutting edge products, technology and tools to help the Chinese farmers to achieve this green development ambition.
01:03On the other hand, in China, because thanks to the continuous advancement in rural area and farming infrastructure,
01:15actually right now China has more than one billion moves high standard farmland.
01:21also with a very good 5G courage in village in the countryside.
01:28So definitely helped us to quickly adapt to all the, you know, digitalization and also to enable us.
01:36We can bring more, you know, advanced technology to serve Chinese farmers needs.
01:41So, you know, digital agriculture, artificial intelligence, those are things that are really transforming farming worldwide.
01:49But it sounds like you're saying that China has a bit of the edge and that your company is jumping on with that.
01:56In the Syngenta Group, we believe digital or data is the new tractor for the agricultural transformation.
02:05We have seen in China more and more green development being enabled by artificial intelligence and data-driven solutions.
02:18So we are collaborating with the local Chinese, you know, digital startups and high-tech giant companies to make sure we can integrate,
02:30to bring, you know, every kind of digitalization technologies to help Chinese farmers to achieve productivity and the sustainability.
02:41You are very future focused, but how is a company like yours addressing the complexities of the economic and political environment that you are operating in?
02:53It's complicated. There are challenges. How do you deal with that?
02:56Right now, the challenges facing agriculture today are very significant and will persist.
03:05So, such as climate change, geopolitical uncertainties and fragile farmers' profit level around the world.
03:16We are thinking as a Syngenta Group, our advantage is a truly globalized agricultural innovation company.
03:24Our global footprint and our international network in more than 100 countries' presence will translate into a catalyst for accelerated innovation to meet the demand from farmers.
03:44So, we see the innovation and collaboration is going to be the winning strategy for Syngenta Group.
03:53Moving forward, we are envisioning to build up this strong, you know, partnership with all the ecosystem.
04:05We also play as a bridge builder across different kind of geographies to make sure we can serve the farmers globally.
04:15By doing that, so we are aiming to shape the agriculture to a new area, which can feed this world safely in a way.
04:29We also can improve our planet.
04:33I think this is perfectly in line with this year's CIE theme, new area, share the future.
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