Search
On behalf of the World Food Prize Laureates and our Council of Advisors, the World Food Prize Foundation extends its deepest condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Simon Nanne Groot, 2019 Laureate, who passed away on July 6, 2025, in his hometown of Enkhuizen, the Netherlands.
“Simon Groot was a man of quiet determination and profound vision,” said Mashal Husain, President, World Food Prize Foundation. “I will never forget the year he received the Prize—his deep humility, and the way he spoke not about himself, but about farmers and seeds. He believed that something as small as a seed could unlock a better future for millions.”
Groot played a transformative role in empowering millions of smallholder farmers in more than 80 countries to earn greater incomes through enhanced vegetable production while providing hundreds of millions of consumers with greater access to nutritious vegetables for healthy diets. His initiative over more than four decades developed a dynamic, smallholder-centered tropical vegetable seed industry, starting in Southeast Asia and spreading through Asia, Africa and Latin America.
Reflecting on Groot’s life, Gebisa Ejeta, Chair of the Laureate Selection Committee and 2009 World Food Prize Laureate, said, "Simon was a bundle of great energy and spirit and a positive force in the role of private for-profits in the global agricultural development enterprise in lifting the poor out of poverty and enhancing nutrition in vulnerable communities.”
Having observed the many challenges facing poverty-stricken smallholder farmers in Southeast Asia, Groot, a sixth-generation seedsman, set out to establish the first market-oriented vegetable seed breeding company with smallholders as the main client base. He founded East-West Seed in the Philippines in 1982 with the idea that a good vegetable seed could change the lives of the poor.
After years of dedicated research and development, Groot introduced the first locally developed commercial vegetable hybrids in tropical Asia. These varieties were fast-growing, high-yielding and resistant to local diseases and stresses. Groot also realized that in order for farmers to maximize the value of these high quality seeds, they needed training on improved vegetable cultivation. Working closely with local and international NGOs, he created East-West Seed’s innovative Knowledge Transfer program—a unique feature for a seed company—which trains tens of thousands of farmers each year in good agricultural practices for vegetable production. As a result of better seeds and farming methods, farmers saw a dramatic increase in their profits, doubling or even tripling their incomes, and consumers found greater availability of these nutritious vegetables in local markets.
Groot was a humble and modest man who, like World Food Prize founder Norman Borlaug, thought of the farmer first and put smallholder farmers at the heart of his business. In his own words: “That’s my number one passion: better seeds for small farmers.”
Groot was a source of inspiration to many, including other seedsmen and companies that followed his example in entering the vegetable breeding industry in underserved regions of the world. He was a founding father and active member of the Asia and Pacific Seed Association, as well as a consortium of vegetable breeders to support the World Vegetable Center (formerly AVRDC) with funds and expertise. Groot was bestowed with the Order of Sikatuna in the Philippines and named Officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau, a royal decoration, in the Netherlands.
Today, East-West Seed serves tens of millions of smallholder farmers in more than 80 tropical countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Groot led the transition of millions of subsistence farmers, many of them women, to horticulture entrepreneurs, greatly enhancing their livelihoods and income. These farmers have invigorated both rural and urban markets for vegetable crops in their communities, making nutritious vegetables more widely available and affordable for millions of families each year. The red arrow of East-West Seed’s logo is a household name among Southeast Asian farmers.
“Access to quality seeds is the foundation of farming, and no one championed that truth more passionately than Mr. Groot,” said Thomas J. Vilsack, Chief Executive Officer, World Food Prize Foundation. “He went where no seedsman had gone before, reaching farmers with the fewest resources and the greatest need. Though he is no longer with us, his legacy lives on in every harvest made possible by the seeds he helped deliver—and in the lives of farmers he empowered around the world.”
Three of his four children followed Groot into leadership positions in the business, ensuring that East-West Seed remains a family-owned company and that it continues their father’s legacy, vision and values.
The World Food Prize Foundation will miss Groot’s presence but honor him during the annual Laureate Award Ceremony on October 23, 2025.