Rounel has been working in the agricultural sector since 2010 and joined Syngenta Seedcare in 2014. Today he is the Syngenta Seedcare Quality and Biologicals Assessment Lead.
He has the responsibility of testing of seed samples to ensure that all seed received the correct and prescribed dosages and applications. He must determine if the promise given will deliver on-farm. “I have to ensure that our Seedcare products are effective.”
The best part of working in the agricultural sector, and specifically for Syngenta, Rounel says, is the opportunities offered to staff as well as the innovative solutions offered to farmers. “Growing more crops with less resources and minimising the footprint on our planet is applied in a practical manner at Syngenta Seedcare.”
This also make her hopeful because he believes with this mindset, the agricultural sector and Syngenta, can end world hunger. “No child should go to bed without a nutritiously balanced meal.”
His favourite quote is one by Helen Keller: You do not need eyes to see, you need vision. This quote also serves as the inspiration for the wish for a superpower ability: “I would love to be able to read people’s minds. This will take so many unnecessary issues out of the equation.”
His advice to young people in general, and to women in the agricultural sector, is to persevere. “Get up, dress up, show up and never give up.”
Talking about family, he points out: “If you ever meet another Ramsander, they would most probably be my family – it is such a unique surname.”
Rounel comes from Newcastle in KwaZulu-Natal and is the eldest of four children but the only male sibling. The rest are all sisters. He has been married for 14 years and is the father of two teenage girls, aged 12 and 14.