Antonie Delport, head of Syngenta South Africa, recently led a delegation of senior Syngenta international representatives on a fact-finding mission to the CSIR. Delport said that the company with its headquarters in Switzerland had sought collaboration with the CSIR, one of Africa’s premier research and development organisations, because it is passionate about development of the continent.

Berenice Lue-Marais, CSIR Group Manager: Contract Research and Development, says that during the visit some of the areas identified for collaboration were: nanotechnology and controlled release, formulation technology, trait technologies for African crops and bioprospecting as well as the Pan African Chemistry network – another African project in which Syngenta has invested. Syngenta has meanwhile also funded the roll-out of some Digital Doorway kiosks as part of its corporate social investment. The Digital Doorway initiative is funded by the Department of Science and Technology and managed by the Meraka Institute of the CSIR.

Syngenta’s visit to South Africa follows a trip made by CSIR representatives last year to the company’s research and development facilities in the United Kingdom as well as its head office in Basel. This was preceded by the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the two organisations in 2006.

“The partnership is still in its infancy, however, now that we have identified potential areas for collaboration we expect further discussions to take place at a technical level. The management of the strategic partnership will be monitored and evaluated by the CSIR/Syngenta steering committee,” Lue-Marias concludes.

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