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Key Values
Mike Gumina, Global CEO RiceTec AG (center), speaking to a small group about three key values that RiceTec uses to guide their everyday
work throughout the company.
Photo by John LaRose, Jr.
New RiceTec Technology Can Secure Global Rice Market
Betty Valle Gegg-Naeger
MidAmerica Farmer Grower
HARRISBURG, ARK.
RiceTec operates on three key values and these guide the efforts in the everyday work throughout the company, according to Mike Gumina, Global CEO RiceTec AG with offices in Alvin, Texas. The values include Innovation, Working Together and Care and Respect for people and the environment.
“When we think about the values its very important to have innovation – that’s the lifeblood of our company in terms of bringing new products and creating new systems so we have a company that can be sustainable over time. Working together as a cohesive team is just a method for us to engage our employees and to drive that innovation. We believe you can do those well and maybe have a good company with the first two values, but you are not going to be a great company unless you pay attention to care and respect.
“First and most important to our employees is that we drive safety. That’s a great start and that creates a mindset that we need to take care of ourselves in order to take care of each other. But we really can’t stop there. In today’s world we have to have respect for people. It’s part and parcel of engaging employees and being sure we’re doing the right things so we can have a very vibrant and productive workforce, but it’s also part and parcel of feeling good about your work every day.
“Ethics: there are so many problems with ethics in the world today. We believe that operating the company in an ethical way, even if we have to take a step back in productivity, or step back in our business, if we do it ethically long term its going to pay dividends for the company, not only in feeling good about what we do, but also driving the reputation of RiceTec as an ethical company.
“Environment: In today’s world, lets face it, rice production in total is under a microscope and being observed by everybody. Water consumption is a key issue for agriculture. Seventy percent of fresh water goes into agriculture, and rice, with the flooded conditions, has a huge optics issue. The industry has done some very, very good things in terms of improving the environmental image and the ‘working wetlands’ concept is part of that improvement. Hybrid rice is a more sustainable solution than varieties, it produces less greenhouse gas, it uses less nitrogen, it uses less water.
“However, we can do more. We can drive new systems like alternate wetting and drying (AWD), we can drive new systems like automated water management and row rice which will improve our water utilization, decrease the pollution coming off our farms, and help us to improve the overall image of the rice farmer in the United States in the eyes of the public that we’re serving. I think its super important to pay attention to environmental issues and be out in front of them so we don’t get legislated out of business in the future.
“We’re very pleased to have such a loyal base of customers and supporters and I want them to know that we’re taking the revenues they have invested in our products and we are reinvesting them into their future. It’s part of what we do to have that positive impact on farmers and create a sustainable food production program,” he summed.
New Technology
Gumina also was more than happy to discuss the new technology for rice production during the recent Field Day.
“Our company is focused on driving sustainable food production with rice seed technologies and at the same time having a positive impact on farmers, our employees and other stakeholders,” he said. These stakeholders include company owners, the rice mills, the consumers of rice and the communities in which we operate. “We take a global view to that sustainability as we approach our business.”
Great strides are being made in technology and innovation. The first and most obvious change growers will see in 2019 is the first release of the new herbicide technology system called FullPageTM, an offering with ADAMA that will allow growers to use a new version of IMI tolerant hybrids. This will give growers the flexibility of applying the herbicides more efficiently to manage their weed control problems.
The next version of herbicide tolerance, an ACCase offering called MaxAceTM will be coming out soon pending Canadian and US EPA approval.
“We’re trying to work that through the regulatory processes today and we expect to launch in 2021 or perhaps 2022, depending on the timing of all these regulatory events,” Gumina said. “This will give us a second mode of action that will allow growers to deal with weed tolerance. These two systems in combination will be a very powerful tool farmers can use to drive weed management programs.”
RiceTec also has other modes of action in the pipeline, products that cannot be discussed at this time. However, we hope these will provide another set of options in the toolbox to continue to improve weed control for our farmers.”
Innovation doesn’t stop there. Some outstanding products in the area of quality are coming.
“We’re releasing one of the first products today that fits industrial rice usage and we believe food companies like Mars are going to be interested. This hybrid is well adapted to cooking in an industrial way. We’re hoping in the very near future, when you eat the Uncle Bens pouch of rice that it will contain at least a portion of RiceTec seeds inside,” he said.
“We are also making strides on the high quality grain types, that is translucent grain, the correct gel temperature, high milling yields and the right amylose content for each market. This is going to help us to drive a better position in the overall export market for the United States. Today, one of the first complaints we hear from export markets is that our quality is lacking. We believe that this transition in hybrid rice towards a higher quality, more translucent rice with better cooking qualities, is going to allow us to recapture some of the share we’ve lost over the last few years. We can’t do a lot about the value of the dollar, but we can provide an extremely compelling offering to the export customers and with our competitive advantage in production and logistics, hopefully, we’re going to help win the day for U.S. farmers and that’s very, very important to us.”
One big advantage RiceTec has is that the company is doing research on three continents. The company can scan the world to find the best pools of germplasm, test those combinations of germplasm against all kinds of environments, work in both seasons of the year to develop these products and find unique offerings that are going to be available to U.S. farmers so they can be successful in their operations.
One of the greatest challenges in breeding hybrid rice is finding heterosis, what is called “hybrid vigor.” While heterosis has been well documented in many crops, rice is naturally a self-pollenated species and the generations of inbreeding has confounded the genetic opportunities.
“Hybrid vigor is a bit elusive, but we cracked the code on a few of the keys to make this hybrid vigor move,” he said. “We’ve had success in the past with great products like XP753 or Gemini 214, and we believe we’re going to drive this heterosis to the next level and continue to add yield as well as quality to our product offering. Of course we will maintain agronomic traits like lodging tolerance, disease tolerance, grain retention, harvestability and other attributes growers need.
“We’re doubling down on our research organization and making new investments in areas such as gene editing,” he added. “We’re trying to learn how this new science can benefit rice farmers. We are also increasing our investments in genomics and predictive modeling. Using these tools in combination with traditional breeding schemes can help us make the very best selections for our product advancements.
This will speed these new innovations to market, allowing RiceTec to bring rice seed products that farmers can use with confidence. ∆
BETTY VALLE GEGG-NAEGER: Senior Staff Writer, MidAmerica Farmer Grower
Mike Gumina, Global CEO RiceTec AG
Photo by John LaRose, Jr.
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