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Conversations with Industry Experts

Dr. Siang Hee Tan Shares His 2024 Vision for CropLife Asia 

Asia is an exciting place for farming — from leading the world in the adoption of ag tech to less expensive regulatory processes for crop protection products. CropLife Asia plays an important role in working with governments and companies to forward innovative agricultural products for supporting growers to feed the region. Dr. Siang Hee Tan, Executive Director, CropLife Asia has a passion for helping growers and forwarding the adoption of ag tech for combatting climate change.

Meet your expert: Tan, as CropLife Asia Executive Director, is responsible for directing regulatory, crop protection, seeds, intellectual property, biotechnology as well as communications and outreach programs in 15 Asian countries. He also established the University of Putra Malaysia’s (UPM) Genome Centre and the biotechnology section for the Sime Darby Technology Centre. He’s received a Silver Award at the 2005 Geneva International Exhibitions & Inventions of New Techniques and Products, a U.S. Government Cochran Fellowship for biological research at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, and UPM awards for Research and Development. Tan also serves as an advisory board for the AgriBusiness Global℠ SE Asia Conference  taking place on 8-9 November 2023 in Jakarta, Indonesia

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ABG: What is your vision for CropLife Asia in 2024?
ST: For 2024 and beyond, we have a vision for addressing adaption to climate change. For us, the vision is to ensure that we have the latest technology delivered into the hands of farmers, so they are able to cope with challenges. We want them to have access to both crop protection and better seeds that can deliver in terms of producing and getting the maximum yield while under tremendous pressure from climate change. It’s very important to ensure that we get a fundamental, resilient, regulatory system, so the first time a new product is being delivered into the market, Asian farmers can access it to produce to the maximum quality yields and ensure affordable and sustainable food for the region.

ABG: What improvements in the regulation process do you think need to happen in Southeast Asia?
ST: I think, in the general terms, we’re seeing a new generation of government offices coming online.

We are seeing more regulatory workers retire. The new hires, who are in their early to late 20s to early 30s, are still learning. There is a 20-year gap in terms of expertise. We need to train this new group of regulatory workers quickly so that they can take on the assessor role with science-based knowledge as soon as possible.

Therefore, there needs to be a longer program enacted within our different stakeholders to support and enable a functional regulatory system. This requires a lot of training and workshops, so that we can build both the capacity and capability as they go through the different domains of regulatory assessment, risk-based assessment, and get a better understanding of other domains. These other domains are stewardship and farmer training to help ensure the products are used safely and correctly while maintaining design space regulation.

CropLife Asia is also collaborating with different partners, especially with USDA Foreign Agriculture Service. We’ve been working for the last 10 years on the ASEAN AWG-MRL, the expert working group focusing on MRLs. We have programs on regulatory resiliency across the region with ASEAN countries and also China and India. So collectively, we work with various different partners to ensure that we as a private sector and government, can help support development of a functional regulatory system.

ABG: What are the top three changes you are seeing in the Southeast Asian region? And what will be the biggest opportunities for the next 3 to 5 years?
ST: I would say the top three are first — the Internet of Things (IoTs), second — the digitalization of the farming community, and the third piece is looking at getting greener chemistries into the marketplace. These three advancements will rapidly shape how we work in the marketplace, because we are seeing chemicals being delivered much more safely, effectively, and efficiently through different technology.

We’re able to use IoTs to be able to identify where pests and diseases are coming from and be able to deploy targeted applications, therefore, saving costs and having higher efficacy.

There is also current investment, including our member companies, into the green chemistry space, which includes biopesticides.

These three advancements will definitely be spearheading and reshaping the operating landscape moving into the next three to five years. And these advancements may move faster, like for example the use of drones today. In China alone, we’re seeing 200,000 drones deploying different agrochemicals in crop management every day. We are seeing different countries adopting high numbers of drones for weather and disease prediction. We’re also moving into the satellite imaging space, so a lot of changes. And of course, right now people are talking about artificial intelligence (AI). With AI, we are looking at imaging processing for pests and diseases on the ground. We also are seeing miniaturization with some of our droids and drones, and ground surveillance. It’s an exciting time for the agriculture space.

ABG: What do you think are the top two challenges in Southeast Asia? What do you see as the solutions to those challenges?
ST: One of the top two challenges is climate change. This year we have experienced the highest temperatures in history, which also happened in the U.S. If you look across India, Vietnam, Thailand, and China, it’s the same. How do we need to manage it in the long-term perspective? We’re working on it.

The second challenge is getting technology into the hands of growers. We did a survey last year asking government officials about their key concerns regarding agriculture moving forward. The survey results showed 80% of the government officials are saying that we are afraid that technology is not being delivered in a critical, sufficient timeline for the farmers to adopt ag tech to adapt and mitigate climate change. I think that’s where the call for action is to enable faster technology deployment into the respective countries. That is why we work collectively to build resiliency with the regulatory systems so that we can deliver the technology into the hands of farmers.

ABG: Are biostimulants a big trend with growers for dealing with climate change?
ST: So far, it’s a trend. But again, just like you mentioned before, there’s a big gap in the regulatory system and still a lot of work to further streamline and get it into a proper regulatory environment.

ABG: Is CropLife Asia doing anything to address the plastics/microplastics problem in SE Asia?
ST: Definitely, yes. CropLife established a container recycling program across the world. We’re very proud that in the Southern countries, they are taking back almost 70% to 80% of agriculture-related plastics every year. Collectively, our members have established different collection programs across the world. Right now, we are leveraging on the extender producer responsibility program, and have also established new programs in China and Vietnam.

We are working across the world to ensure that we are committed to bringing back the plastic we put into the marketplace. Our members made a voluntary commitment under the International Code of Conduct to do this. In the last couple of years, we have collected 100,000 metric tons of plastic.

ABG: What else is happening in the Southeast Asian region that you think is important to talk about?
ST: I think the whole region is growing. If you look at crop protection, in 2007-2008, we were trading around $4.5 billion, and right now, we’re running at more than $21 billion. We’re seeing healthy growth. We’re seeing more and more countries adopting technological innovations that our members are putting on the ground.

As we look forward, we really want to build regulatory resiliency so that our farmers can continue to enjoy the innovations and pipeline that we are putting into the market and really support what’s available in each grower’s toolbox because the challenges will only increase.

It is only with science-based technology, whether it’s digital, chemical, or biopesticides. All this should be made available to the farmers because every farmer is working in very different climates with a variable of challenges in terms of rainfall and drought. We need to make sure that they can pick and choose solutions to adapt to their local environment.

Also, ag tech companies need to have open minds to collaborate with farmers to see what their needs are and develop technology to help them. Again, we are all working toward sustainable farming to make sure affordable food is available for the region. The reason being, we have more than 500 million people that go hungry every day in Asia alone. That is a very significant number. With climate change producing more and more unpredictable weather, the farmer is at the forefront of trying to produce food and bearing the burden to ensure that he can grow the food successfully.

But there is hope. We are seeing a lot of governments emphasize the importance of agriculture. But we need to raise the awareness that a technology toolbox is critical for the survival of agriculture and to ensure that we have an affordable and sustainable food production system.  •

By JKLoma – adobe-stock.com