Welcome to a new SeedNL team member!

SeedNL is proud to announce the addition of a new member to our team: Gareth Borman will join SeedNL as technical advisor. Get to know Gareth in the below blog and we invite you to join us in welcoming Gareth (again) to the SeedNL community!

Could you please introduce yourself to the SeedNL community?

Hi everyone! It’s great to join the team at SeedNL. Until recently, I was leading one of the flagship initiatives: the Ethiopian Seed Partnership, but with the change I feel like a new node in the community and look forward to engaging with more of you. From now on, I will coordinate SeedNL’s efforts in Bangladesh and India, which is a new and exciting challenge for me.

I have been working on seed systems development for 14 years, mostly in Ethiopia but also elsewhere on the African continent. I was doing so as an advisor at Wageningen University & Research. I still have some activities in Wageningen while I await the defence of my PhD on Stewarding seed systems transformation.

On a more personal level, I live in Cape Town with my wife and two daughters. I’m also originally from South Africa, so feel at home here after 9 years in the Netherlands. I like the outdoors and regularly go camping with the girls whenever we can. I’m also an amateur birder, fisher, surfer, boxer, cook, … (the list of novelties goes on).

Can you tell us what you will be working on for SeedNL?

SeedNL plays an important role in the coordination of the Bangladesh-Netherlands Seed Platform and India-Netherlands Seed Secretariat. Stakeholders in both initiatives have the desire to see activities evolve into fully-fledged partnerships with the Netherlands. Respecting the two countries’ differences, I will manage the project activities from SeedNL’s side and engage Dutch expertise and interests in the exploration of opportunities there.

What elements of SeedNL’s ambition and activities speak to you most?

A colleague once described SeedNL to me as a ‘makelaar en schakelaar’; a connector and enabler, in my interpretation. I like the catalytic function of SeedNL and look forward to initiating new and exciting opportunities abroad. That is where I want to hone my skills and work with those of you sharing this interest.

What is your ambition and wish for the seed sector and its development over the next years?

I want to support the emergence of fully-fledged partnerships between the Netherlands and Bangladesh and India respectively, based on mutual benefit and reciprocity. Wherever these partnerships can play to the strengths of the countries’ complementarity and include different stakeholders more equitably, I will be on the lookout.