Advanta Seeds is a UPL seed company adapting to rapidly increasing food insecurity and climate change by providing farmers with innovation and new seeds’ technologies. Along with UPL, the company provides a wide offering of agricultural solutions for farmers around the world.

 

In 2019, Advanta Seeds was ranked No. 5 global seed company in the Access to Seeds Index and No. 2 in the South and South-East Index in 2021. Additionally, the company ranked 4th in Africa Access to Seeds Index 2021 for contributing to UN SDGs and food security by World Benchmarking Alliances.

 

Robust Innovation and Collaboration

 

The strength of Advanta is in multicrop in many geographies. The innovation, advanced R&D, and collaboration with international research organizations allows Advanta Seeds to bring the best technology to local growers. The company conducts breeding, testing and growing seeds in the same conditions as farmers. In fact, the company understanding of local agriculture allows to develop  local expertise for  growers customised agricultural solutions.  

 

Additionally, Advanta stands out as  one of a few seed companies  with its highly diversified portfolio of field and vegetable crops. Currently, it has 16 field crops, while most seed companies focus on one or two. Moreover, it has commercialized over 50 crops in more than 80 countries across the world.

 

Successful Adherence to the UN SDGs

 

Advanta’s priority lies in food security and responding to the needs of farmers while producing climate-smart and nourishing crops. It also prioritizes contributing to the UN SDGs by enhancing nutrition and protecting the environment, supporting smallholder farmers who are essential to food security.

 

According to the United Nations report on world food security and nutrition, with climate change and increasing conflicts, almost 30% of the global population lacks year-round access to adequate food. There is a growing number of undernourished population, mostly children with deficiencies in vitamins and minerals impacting their development and growth. With that being said, Advanta Seeds is committed to helping farmers produce nutritious food. It applies innovation and new technology solutions to develop a wider variety and higher volume of nutritional crops across multiple geographies. The company has also implemented measures to build resilient supply chains and improve access to seeds for local farmers. It invests in highly nutritious, biofortified, climate-smart, and eco-friendly crops to target nutrition and climate change challenges at the same time.

 

Driven by Passion, Enthusiasm and Purpose

 

At the helm of the company, Bhupen Dubey spearheads and guides the entire company as the Global CEO. Given that innovation and productivity are strongly correlated at its center, the team of Advanta Seeds is motivated and driven by passion, enthusiasm and purpose which results in productivity as the byproduct. Bhupen believes if the team is committed and motivated, the results will follow naturally. He adds, “I believe we need to motivate our team by engaging them in all what we do and we start that early on when looking for team members to join our company.”

 

Advanta Seeds always seeks the right mindset, self -driven passionate individuals that believe in the company vision  and want to make an impact. All in all, Advanta’s growth in the last five to six years demonstrates that its philosophy works quite well.

 

Leveraging Technology for High-quality Delivery

 

Given the various inculcations and advantages of technology in the field of agriculture, Advanta Seeds is extensively leveraging technology in traditional plant breeding to deliver high-quality seeds. It uses innovation and technology to provide the best genetics. According to Bhupen, “High quality germplasm is the key product in the seed industry.” With that being said, Advanta uses innovation and technology to provide the best genetics. It also uses traditional breeding methods to enhance the performance of seeds. Advanta’s R&D, as well as biotechnology centers, are strategically located on all continents which enables it to work in different environments. In the future, it aims to expand and grow its breeding programs. In recent years, Advanta Seeds has increased the innovation rate from 10 to 24%. The company further aspires to reach a 30% innovation rate within the next few years.

 

In addition to the above, Advanta’s focus centers on climate-smart, highly nutritional, and eco-friendly crops. In fact, it already has a few unique technologies in sunflower, corn, canola, sorghum and vegetables that are meeting these criteria. Moreover, Advanta Seeds is driven by innovation while prioritizing developing improved crops for addressing global food insecurity.

 

Taking Farmers’ Interest at Heart

 

To date, Advanta Seeds has taken its farmers’ interest at heart, bringing profitability and improvement to their lives. Therefore, the company has stood out as a distinct choice for the farmers. In fact, Bhupen, along with the management team of Advanta, consistently ponders over how the company can improve the life of farmers in line with the needs of society as well as the environmental impacts. He adds that major seed players, including large global conglomerates, are focused on monoculture with a devastating impact on agrobiodiversity, soil health, and the environment. In many regions which are the future of agriculture like Latin America, Africa and Asia there is a need for a diversified crop system. Therefore, there is a need to maintain agrobiodiversity and build resilience against climate change for farmers. Given that the multiple crops cultivation is important, Advanta Seeds is growing its portfolio and ensuring various crop options for multiple regions. Bhupen concludes that the company studies the cropping system today and seeks solutions for the future by building its product portfolio based on various crop species to enhance the agrobiodiversity.

 

At the Forefront:

 

Bhupen Dubey is a successful leader and the Global CEO of Advanta Seeds. His leadership is driven by a strong understanding of farmers’ needs and a passion for sustainable agriculture. Bhupen has over 30 years of experience in agriculture, supply chain, and food production from various. He has played a vital role in managing and integrating companies within the UPL group, such as Advanta/UPL, Golden Seeds, and Unicorn. He has been driving essential integrations to bring profitable and sustainable growth for the UPL business.

 

Bhupen is well known for his industry expertise and is an active member of many professional affiliations. He participated in the multi-stakeholder project for the World Economic Forum, Transformational Leadership, and Agricultural Development.

 

“Advanta Seeds is focused on sustainable agriculture and providing farmers with quality seeds.”

 

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