We know that Syngenta is a private company. For them everything is business. The local trade will help to lift the local people out of dependency. One day, when they are richer, these people could become markets for the company's products. Mike Gale, Head of the Comparative Genetics Unit at The John Innes Centre in Norwich, England agrees.
Rice shares the major genes with the other cereals.
But Syngenta's work is not much use to scientists if it is not shared. If it has as much impact as the Monsanto data it will have none, because the contractual arrangements to use it are too exacting. The work's going to be very useful to Syngenta, however.