DuPont Partners with China to Increase Farm Productivity

DuPont partnerships with China’s public and private sectors will help increase farm productivity in the country and increase total global supply of key agricultural products, Bill Niebur, vice president -- DuPont Crop Genetics Research and Development, told attendees at the “Globalization of the Seed Industry” Biotechnology and Agriculture Summit Friday. The summit was organized by the Science and Technology Commission of the Beijing Municipal Government.

“We need to increase the productivity of each acre of land for China to achieve food security – and biotechnology will be a key technology in doing so,” Bill said. “China has experienced productivity gains in rice and corn production through hybridization, but growth has reached a plateau. New technologies are needed to achieve the step-change increase in corn and rice production that is required to meet China’s growing demand for grain.”

China currently is feeding 20 percent of the global population with only 9 percent of the world’s arable land. The country’s rapidly growing population and rising income have increased demand for agricultural products.

As part of DuPont’s growth in China, DuPont business Pioneer Hi-Bred is committing resources to help improve the productivity of Chinese farmers. It established a business representative office in Beijing in 1997. A year later, Pioneer began breeding and testing corn hybrids for China’s summer and spring corn areas. Pioneer established a summer corn joint venture in China – Shandong Denghai Pioneer Seeds Co., Ltd. – in 2002. In 2006, Pioneer announced its second joint venture with one of China’s largest seed production companies, Dunhuang Seed Co. Ltd.