Founder of East-West Seed and the World Food Prize Laureate 2019, Honorary doctorate at the University of the Philippines (received in 2019), Honorary doctorate of Naresuan University Thailand (received in 2011).
My graduation was in spring of 1956, from what was then still called the Nederlandse Economische Hogeschool (NEH). As marketing director of our family seed business Sluis & Groot (now Sygenta), I had noticed the poverty of smallholder farmers in South East Asia and their need for high-quality seed to increase their productivity and income.
It wasn’t until ten years later, in the days of Professor Kuhlmeyer, that I recognised the importance of a more comprehensive understanding of B2B Farmer Marketing which, during my 35 years in seeds in the South-East Asian market, turned out to be the dominant factor for the development of the seed market. Now, East-West Seed serves over 19 million farmers, providing direct access to food to hundreds of millions of people and adding billions of dollars to 'income' of small farmers.
From a continuity point of view, let me add that our eldest son Rutger Groot followed in my footsteps. He is now the President of the Knowledge Transfer Foundation of East-West Seed, a non-profit Farmer Extension program for tropical vegetable farming in SE-Asia and Africa.
Rutger is also an Erasmus alumnus, RSM Bedrijfskunde 1992, after studying Business at University of Buckingham UK in 1986.
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