Midland-based Gantec finds mutually beneficial relationship in Senegal

Sub-Saharan Africa and Midland have very little in common at first glance. One is known for safaris and sweltering climates, and the other is perhaps the epitome of small town America.

 

That said, there is a link between these two vastly different regions. Gantec, a biotech company based in Midland, has been involved in Sub-Saharan Africa since 2001--first in Mauritania and now in Senegal. And their work on both continents falls under the same hat, which is to develop products for plants in an environmentally sustainable way.

 

 

To develop their technology, President of Gantec Richard Olson says they look for plants that thrive in extreme environments. This search is what originally led him to Africa.

 

An employee with Dow Chemical for 24 years, Olson left in 1998 to work on President Clinton's Council of Sustainable Development. During this time, Olson traveled the developing world, looking for opportunities in sustainable development. 

 

A friend working with an NGO (non-governmental organization) that provided aid, education, and micro financing to Mauritania invited Olson to visit the country. "It's a poor nation with three million people," says Olson. "One million are nomads supporting themselves."

 

In 2001, Olson sought to continue pushing the principles of sustainable development with Gantec, incorporating by 2005 with his co-founders who also came from Dow and Midland.

 

"Midland is a very unique community," says Olson. "It has a tremendous resource of highly trained scientists."

 

Africa, as it turned out, had a tremendous resource of its own, especially for a biotech company--neem trees.

 

 

Neem is a type of tree whose characteristics allow it to survive in severe conditions. Using the makeup of neem trees has allowed Olson to get the most out of plant development back at Gantec's Midland headquarters.

 

"We came in 2001 and the timing was perfect, because the president [of Mauritania] said they needed to turn to the west for opportunities," Olson recalls. A trip through the country with the U.S. ambassador featured the neem trees, and the wheels started turning.

 

Eventually Gantec shifted their African presence to Senegal in 2005, thanks to a more stable government, better infrastructure and a couple hundred thousand more neem trees. During their first year in Senegal, Gantec began working on the supply side of the business.

 

"I just got back yesterday from my 28th trip since 2005 in developing the supply," says Olson. "We developed the technology to give us the highest quality neem seed available."

 

 

At this point in the conversation, Olson hits on their triple bottom line philosophy. "We want to see economic opportunity, development and community development," he says. "We're seeing it and that's really encouraging."

 

Danielle Stoermer, an integrated food security training program assistant, is seeing the triple bottom line play out firsthand in Dakar, Senegal.

 

"I've worked for Peace Corps in Senegal for over four years now, and we've been extending Gantec products, primarily the neem oil as an organic pesticide but also the solid neem fertilizer, to the farmers that Peace Corps volunteers work with throughout Senegal," Stoermer says. "The Peace Corps in Senegal has a Master Farmer program in which we train specifically-selected farmers throughout Senegal in a wide variety of improved agriculture and agro-forestry techniques and equip them to demonstrate those techniques on a one-hectare farm as well as train fellow community members in those improved techniques."

 

In other words, Stoermer is using products Olson and his staff at Gantec have been able to create from neem that act as an environmentally friendly pesticide for Senegalese farmers and produce higher yields.

 

"The Gantec products are helping us reach our goals of improving food security of smallholder farmers and their families throughout Senegal, with an added benefit of the products being locally produced and organic," says Stoermer.

 

Eric Toumieux, coordinator of the Beer-Sheba Project--a sustainable agro-forestry program in Senegal--echoes Stoermer's sentiments about Gantec as a customer of the company's organic powder fertilizer, based on neem extract.

 

"It's a great fertilizer that can meet the needs of both subsistence and commercial farmers in the Sahel," Toumieux explains, noting some of the organization's founding fathers come from Gantec. He calls the product a miracle. "[It] repels insects and gives strength to the plant by developing the root system."

 

Naturally, Toumieux, Stoermer and Olson's 123 certified suppliers are excited to continue their relationship with Midland's own Gantec.

 

"We're looking forward to continuing and expanding our collaboration with Gantec," says Stoermer. "And we're excited about the possibilities that their products hold for the future of agriculture in Senegal and across Africa."