Agriculture is Critical for Improved Nutrition and Health Worldwide - DuPont Leader

“Agriculture holds significant promise to improve health conditions, but that promise will only be realized with collaboration from governments, organizations and businesses to increase the quantity, quality and accessibility of food in a sustainable way,” he said.

Oct 14 2010 --- “Agriculture plays a critical role in improving the quality of nutrition and health for people around the world,” said Paul E. Schickler, president – Pioneer Hi-Bred, a DuPont business, at the second annual Global Health Conference presented by the Heartland Global Health Consortium being held in conjunction with the World Food Prize activities here.

“We have a tremendous opportunity to address global health challenges by increasing the productivity of the world’s farmers, expanding the availability of nutritious food and empowering farmers around the world to improve their families’ standards of living,” said Schickler.

In developing countries, more than 60 percent of the population depends on agriculture for their livelihood. “As a farmer improves agricultural productivity, income can increase, and so does the ability to buy food and enhance the family’s quality of life.

“Improvements must be made at the local level, including developing seeds, products and management practices specific to an area, but also ensuring access to credit, markets, crop storage facilities, roads and equipment.

“Agriculture holds significant promise to improve health conditions, but that promise will only be realized with collaboration from governments, organizations and businesses to increase the quantity, quality and accessibility of food in a sustainable way,” he said.

There are a number of examples of successful programs around the world. In Thailand, local farmers partnered with Pioneer to improve the quantity and quality of student lunches at area schools. Pioneer donated seed and inputs for farmers to plant corn on land owned by the school. The harvested crop was sold by local grain traders to provide additional funds for school lunches. In the program’s first year, one school reported nearly a 5 percent decline in underweight students.

“Innovative science also is important. Researchers around the world are developing crops that not only yield more, but also provide increased nutrient content and digestibility even in harsh conditions,” Schickler said.

This reflects DuPont’s overall commitment to feeding a growing population by delivering advanced seed genetics to improve productivity, crop protection products to help guard crop yield and quality, innovative packaging that protects food quality and testing systems to ensure food safety.