Simon Groot

Simon Nanne Groot (born 1934)[1][2] is a Dutch agronomist whose work has focused on producing disease resistant crops and improving seed growth and development. He is the founder of the company East West Seed and is the 2019 winner of the World Food Prize.[1][3]

Childhood and education

Born into a family of crop seed cultivators in 1934 in the city of Enkhuizen, Netherlands, Groot was a sixth-generation member of the family business, Sluis & Groot [nl]. He received a degree in business economics from Erasmus University Rotterdam.[4]

Career

By 1981, Groot's family business had to be sold, prompting him to develop his own company named East West Seed with the money made from the family sale.[5] He officially launched the company in 1982 with Benito Domingo, a fellow seed seller located in the Philippines.[6] The focus of the company was to develop and sell improved seed cultivars with an aim toward impoverished regions of the world that could most benefit from more disease-resistant and hardier crops. The company began selling in the Philippines first and Thailand by the late 1980s before expanding into Indonesia in the 1990s and the rest of Southeast Asia. The sale of seeds to countries in Africa began in the late 2000s, focusing on East Africa. The F1 hybrids developed by Groot were made using local cultivars, including the creation of a popular variety of Thai pepper.[5]

Groot noted that it was initially difficult to get farmers in the Philippines to commit to using hybrid seeds, with only 20 percent of the farming population in the country committing to the idea by 1992.[7] The Access to Seeds Index published in 2016 rated companies which provided seed cultivars to developing countries: East West Seed came top for East Africa and for vegetable seeds globally. The company said that Groot's bitter gourd hybrid was one of the most popular seeds sold.[8] By 2019, Groot's hybrid cultivars were being sold in over 60 countries throughout the developing world.[9]

Awards and honors

Groot was given the 2015 Mansholt Award for sustainable entrepreneurship for his work with East West Seed in providing seed cultivars to improve the agriculture of developing countries.[10] In early 2019, he was given an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of the Philippines Los Baños.[4] In 2019, he was awarded the World Food Prize for "his transformative role in empowering millions of smallholder farmers in more than 60 countries to earn greater incomes through enhanced vegetable production, benefiting hundreds of millions of consumers with greater access to nutritious vegetables for healthy diets."[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c "2019: Groot". worldfoodprize.org. World Food Prize. June 2019. Archived from the original on 3 December 2021. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  2. ^ van der Lee, Hans (March 2012). "Probeer 'Nederland 1960' te exporteren" [Try exporting 'Netherlands 1960']. Berichten Buitenland Special (in Dutch). Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation. p. 4. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  3. ^ Eller, Donnelle (10 June 2019). "Founder of a Dutch seed company named 2019 World Food Prize winner". The Des Moines Register. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  4. ^ a b Tayao-Juego, Annelle (30 June 2019). "He is Groot". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved 17 November 2022.
  5. ^ a b "De zaden van Simon Groot (84) zorgen voor minder honger en meer winst voor miljoenen" [The seeds of Simon Groot (84) ensure less hunger and more profit for millions]. Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (in Dutch). 14 June 2019. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  6. ^ "The Netherlands Knights Filipina Agriculture Advocate". BusinessMirror. 29 April 2021. Retrieved 17 November 2022 – via Gale.
  7. ^ Sarian, Zac B. (19 March 2018). "Agrikultura" [Agriculture]. Liwayway (in Filipino). Retrieved 17 November 2022.
  8. ^ Smouter, Karel (1 March 2016). "Een lijst met de wereldwijde toegang tot zaden, schieten we daar iets mee op?" [A list of worldwide access to seeds, does that help us?]. De Correspondent (in Dutch). Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  9. ^ Madhvi, Sally (30 September 2019). "Help smallholder farmers thrive economically: Simon Groot". The Economic Times. Retrieved 17 November 2022 – via Gale.
  10. ^ van der Scheer, Ton (25 February 2016). "Zaadbedrijven langs maatschappelijke meetlat" [Seed companies on a social yardstick]. Groenten & Fruit (in Dutch). Retrieved 15 November 2022.