Groot to be remembered on July 13 for legacy in vegetable farming

Simon N. Groot, the late founder of East-West Seed and 2019 World Food Prize laureate, will be fondly remembered in Bangladesh on July 13 for his transformative contributions to the country's vegetable farming.

Simon N. Groot, the Dutch agricultural pioneer, passed away peacefully on July 6 at his hometown in Enkhuizen of Netherlands. He was 90. A private farewell service will be held at his hometown on July 14 according to his wish, according to a press statement.

Groot helped to change the lives of millions of smallholder farmers around the world through research based breeding and providing good quality vegetable seeds suited for tropical climates. This helped farmers grow more vegetables, earn higher incomes and improve their livelihood.

Groot was a sixth-generation member of a family deeply rooted in seed cultivation. After his family's business was sold in 1981, he used the proceeds to start East-West Seed in the Philippines.

In 1982, he founded East-West Seed in the Philippines with Filipino partner Benito Domingo. Over the years, the company expanded across the globe including Bangladesh, where it plays an important role in vegetable farming. His goal was to produce high-quality, disease-resistant vegetable hybrids suitable for tropical climates -- a novel concept at the time.

Today, East-West Seed is a world leader in tropical vegetable seeds, offering over 850 improved varieties in more than 70 countries, the statement added.

Simon believed that giving farmers good seeds was not enough -- they also needed knowledge. This idea led to the creation of the company's Knowledge Transfer Program, which later became the Knowledge Transfer Foundation. This non-profit organisation now trains over 56,000 farmers each year in better farming methods, including thousands in Bangladesh.

For his outstanding contributions to global food security, Simon N. Groot received the World Food Prize in 2019, one of the highest honours in agriculture.

He introduced the first locally bred tropical vegetable hybrids in Asia and soon expanded operations into over 70 countries across Africa and Latin America, supporting more than 20 million smallholder farmers.

He also received the Mansholt Award for Sustainable Entrepreneurship (2015), and an honorary doctorate from the University of the Philippines Los Baños. He earned a degree in business economics from Erasmus University Rotterdam.

Simon Groot will be remembered for his lifelong belief: "A good seed can change the lives of millions"