Bayer puts farmers first

Bayer Crop Science Business Head EMEA Jens Hartmann (right) and Bayer Crop Science Business Head Africa Klaus Eckstein (below) talk to Bill Lumley about the firm’s commitment to crop sustainability in Africa

Bayer’s $160m donation to the World Food Programme’s Zero Hunger Pledge is an impressive commitment. What are the most urgent challenges that you each consider needs to be addressed in the quest to end hunger by 2030?

Klaus: When we talk about hunger in Africa, the biggest challenge is to get agriculture to do what it is there for: giving smallholder farmers and countries the opportunity to produce the food they need and growth they require. Eighty percent of Africa’s farmland is farmed by smallholders so one of our most pressing challenges is to help those many smallholders grow enough healthy and nutritious crops and vegetables for their community. Smallholders need access to quality seeds, inputs and technologies and they need skills development to use innovative and digital farming tools that will enable them to grow healthy crops at higher yields.

And then, that produce needs to get into the local markets and food eco-systems so that smallholders can run small and entrepreneurial operations that are effectively productive and profitable – in short sustainable. We are working on many fronts and through multiple partnerships to help make this happen.

Jens: The other obvious challenge is driven by climate change, which is putting pressure on the ecosystems needed to support increased food and feed production. This is where we are developing tailored solutions – integrated seed to crop protection solutions enabled by digital tools to help alleviate some of these limitations to growing healthy crops.

At Bayer we are aiming to uplift the lives of 100 million smallholders worldwide by the year 2030. In Africa alone, our aim is to reach and impact 20 million smallholders, which is indeed a very strong commitment to the African continent. Bayer’s vision of “Health for all, hunger for none” is what drives us. We are setting ourselves the goals of improving the livelihoods of those farmers as well as growing our business to be able to generate the necessary funds towards R&D for our tailored solutions and the partnerships to help build a sustainable farming and resilient food system in Africa.

Our donation to the World Food Programme is one of our 35 partnership programmes with a focus on Africa. Other examples are our decade-long Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA) partnership, aiming to combat the impact of droughts and insects on maize crops by providing royalty-free drought-tolerant and insect-resistant seeds to farmers. There is also The Modern Breeding Project where we leverage $1.2 million of in-kind support in sustainable practices as well as training programmes to build a more effective plant breeding system that develops superior cultivars for critical African crops.

Can you talk me through the significance of your partnership with the Africa Green Revolution Forum (AGRF)?

Jens: From a crop science perspective, if we talk about having an impact on sustainable agri food systems, we need to maintain a very strong commitment to farmers, helping them to shape agriculture to the benefit of people. It’s really about how we fast-scale innovations in a highly fragmented marketplace and how we go about forming successful, impactful partnerships, acknowledging that no single entity can really do this alone. Let me briefly comment on our long-term relationship with AGRA in that context of farmer centricity and the AGRF.

Our collaboration with AGRA provides a great training and education platform on our maize hybrid seeds. Collaborating with AGRA’s network of Village Based Advisors and expanding this into a partnership with the Cereal Growers Association of Kenya provides exactly that access to small farmers.

During the Covid pandemic we collaborated with AGRA and seven other partners in giving free hybrid seeds to up to 560,000 smallholder farmers in eight countries across Africa. AGRA was a very important conduit for this because we wanted to educate smallholder farmers and help them adopt agronomic practices to use this technology in a way that improves the sustainability of crop production and food supply.

Stepping up our relationship with AGRA on AGRF to help convene governments, scientists and relevant private stakeholders to create that enabling environment for sustainable and resilient food systems for Africa, became an obvious choice. It is an important platform and AGRA is a key partner for Bayer.

Can you outline the importance of crop science in the mission to achieve zero hunger?

Jens: Crop science has the potential of substantial contributions towards the mission of achieving zero hunger if the right policy frameworks support their uptake at farmers’ level. The relevance and opportunity of crop science is exactly what has kept me working in our business for more than 20 years across Asia and EMEA.

Digital technology is enabling us to reach a much broader farmer base for knowledge transfer, education and for driving innovation in agriculture. The development of digital platforms is facilitating access for small farmers to good agronomic practices, and we are only at the beginning. These digital tools will enable us to enhance promising new business models that have the potential to effectively transform smallholder farming ecosystems.

Then there is seed technology. This includes the development of seeds with high germination rates and adapted hybrid seeds, specifically targeting the needs of smallholder farmers in Africa.

Are there any particular African nations that set a high standard and a good example to other countries when it comes to enabling crop science developments?

Klaus: Let’s talk deregulation of biotechnology first. It has transformed agriculture in South Africa for more than 20 years. The technology has been enabling small holder and commercial farmers to protect their high yielding maize, soybean and their cotton crops against crop bugs. This has the potential to significantly impact the small holder food production in Africa.

Our Better Life Farming Alliance was successfully set up through public private partnerships in India, Bangladesh and Indonesia. We are now scaling this alliance in

Africa. With 35 partnerships across 13 countries in Africa, we are confident in our growing capacity to implement sustainable farming practices at farmer level.

We learn a lot from our smallholders daily and that is fascinating in itself.

Do you have any statistics or other data that illustrate how far you’ve come towards achieving your zero hunger goal?

Klaus: We are strongly committed to our investment in Africa. This means bringing tailored solutions to both smallholder and commercial farmers and making our 20 million farmer commitment a reality.

In 2020, we reached and impacted lives of

5.4 million farmers. This year they will be 8.6 million farmers. Most recent investments in Africa include also a seed technology centre in South Africa and a seed production plant in Zambia.

How important is the farmer in the overall picture of your sustainability goals?

Klaus: The key message is that we always need to keep the farmer in our focus. We need to get their insights, understand their real needs and learn fast. Because we are impacting not only the farmers, but also their communities. We desire to empower Africa to grow and I’m very proud and passionate about that.■

“At Bayer we are aiming to uplift the lives of 100 million smallholders worldwide by the year 2030. In Africa alone, our aim is to reach and impact 20 million smallholders”