"There isn't another market like India"

Steven Hawkins, President, Syngenta Crop Protection, on the opportunity for expanding agricultural exports and more

- BY KRISHNA GOPALAN

Over 75% business of the $17-billion Syngenta comes from crop protection. The company was formed in 2000 with the merger of Novartis and AstraZeneca's agrichemical businesses. Steven Hawkins, President, Syngenta Crop Protection, talks with Business Today's Krishna Gopalan about why he is optimistic about India, the effects of geopolitical turmoil, and the overall outlook for agriculture. Edited excerpts:

Q: Every multinational corporation, without exception, says India is a critical market. What makes the country unique for your business?

A: India, for sure, is a critical growth market. We must understand a few things here. The development and sophistication of agricultural production, or productivity as you call it, must catch up. That is still quite low in India compared to the global average. The good news is that it has improved. I have been coming to India for 25 years and the improvement from what it was in the past is evident. One key reason for this is that the industry has been able to bring in new technologies.

Of course, India is exporting agricultural products. That is a relatively new phenomenon and means the use of new technologies is really important. For the farmers, there is now access to better agronomic production.

Beyond all this, India is always special for many reasons. For one, it's a huge country and the fact that it has more than 100 million small holders in agriculture is very interesting. Then, there is the fact of how rural India is connected to agriculture, with almost half of India's population somehow involved in the sector. These dynamics make agriculture extremely critical to the country. I don't think there's another market like India.

Q: Are there markets that are similar?