Partnerships for More High-Quality Food

Safeguarding food supplies for a constantly growing world population will be among the most pressing problems of the future. Bayer is providing an innovative solution with the program “food chain partnership.” This business model supports the United Nations Millennium Development Goal of fighting poverty and hunger throughout the world and contributes to sustainable development.

The situation is alarming. Studies undertaken by the United Nations forecast that the world’s population will increase by three billion between today and 2050. All these people will require sufficient and affordable food. This is reason enough to begin reacting already today. With our “food chain partnership” program for vegetables and fruits and further crops, we help to enable farmers worldwide to raise agricultural yields, increase food quality, and improve their income situation.

Experts from our Bayer CropScience (BCS) subgroup advise mainly fruit and vegetable farmers on all matters from seeding to harvesting. The BCS professionals teach the farmers about sustainable cultivation in keeping with good agricultural practice.

This also includes the controlled, environmentally friendly use of crop protection agents. High-quality seed, improved treatment plans, and consistent monitoring of pest infestation increase not only agricultural yields, but also in particular the quality of vegetables and fruits.

An important aspect is that the farmers document every single cultivation step and each crop protection measure. Ultimately, monitoring and transparency benefit the entire supply chain: Exporters, importers, and traders can be sure that the produce was grown properly and that they are buying and selling products of the highest quality. For their part, consumers can assume they are purchasing high-quality fruits and vegetables. The producing farmers see their livelihoods become more secure, as the integrated measures significantly increase their net incomes.

As one of the lighthouse projects of our Sustainable Development Program, the food chain partnership project focusing on vegetables in India plays a pioneering role in safeguarding food supplies. To date, Indian food chain partnership projects have been organized in about 100 planting regions, accounting for 30,000 hectares of field area. A total of 40,000 farmers participated directly in the program in 2010. The relevant vegetables are okra, chili, tomatoes, eggplants, potatoes, and cucumbers. It is planned to further increase the area of cultivated land and expand the program to include additional regions by the end of 2011.

The activities are a response to rising quality demands on the part of consumers. After all, as in many other emerging countries, the standard of living is also increasing in India. Many people are buying more food, which they want to be fresh, healthy, and affordable. Furthermore, the processing industry and the export trade are also placing higher demands on food in terms of quality. The example of 27-year-old farmer Ashishkumar Patel shows how a food chain partnership works in practice. Patel cultivates some 2.4 hectares in the village of Chandrala in Gujarat state on India’s western coast. In addition to cotton and eggplants, he mainly grows okra, which is among the most popular foodstuffs in India.

Our experts from Bayer CropScience advised him to plant a new okra variety that perfectly fits the requirements of the Indian food industry – and it is of such high quality that it can be exported as well. Our teams then regularly visited his fields and offered him advice and practical support, especially with regard to pest control. The effects were already noticeable after less than a year: The farmer’s okra yields alone rose from 4.2 to 6 metric tons. Moreover, he was able to achieve better prices due to the increased quality of his crops. As a result, his net income rose by 40 percent. This stands as one of many examples.

Yet it is not only farmers who benefit from this arrangement. What makes the food chain partnership concept special is that all partners along the food chain benefit from it – from farmers and traders to sellers and consumers, and over the long term Bayer as well. In the state of Gujarat, for example, one of the food chain project’s steady partners is a supermarket chain. The goods grown by Ashishkumar Patel and other farmers are sold in its shops.

With concepts such as the food chain partnership projects, we are actively helping to realize the United Nations Millennium Development Goal of fighting hunger and poverty and providing a growing world population with sufficient food quantities. The radius of action here goes far beyond India.

This is also evident in the “Green World” project launched in Kenya in 2006. With a surface area of 582,000 square km, this East African country is about the size of France. Among its more than 30 million inhabitants are a small number of large-scale farmers with significant land holdings, as well as about five million small farmers. These growers subsist on the production of the most important export crops – coffee, tea, and flowers – as well as increasingly on the cultivation of vegetables such as sugar peas, beans, and corn cobs, or bananas, pineapples, coconuts, and other exotic fruits.

Most of these farmers are not familiar with modern cultivation methods. There is a lack of awareness about environmental issues and knowledge about the safe use of crop protection agents. The improper use of unregistered products is a major problem, as are counterfeit substances and the use of low-quality products.

Only 20 percent of Kenya’s surface area is suitable for agricultural cultivation. It is thus all the more important for small farmers to be able to optimally cultivate their plots of land while at the same time meeting the rising demands placed on food safety in the most important export markets of Europe.

Many of these farmers have already taken a big step toward this goal by participating in the Green World project. We have joined together in a public-private partnership with the German developmental aid organization GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH).

Specifically, about 100 selected businesses in Kenya’s villages have already been transformed into what are known as “Green World Shops.” The owners have received comprehensive training in good agricultural practice and the responsible use of crop protection agents, and are themselves offering training measures for small farmers. At the same time, GIZ has also launched a special training program for farmers.
Included in the project are seed producers, exporters, and the national agriculture ministry, among other players. Furthermore, Equity Bank of Kenya grants microloans to the farmers, thus enabling them to purchase seed, fertilizer, and crop protection agents. The objective of all these efforts is to produce high-quality, safe food. As in India, the focus is not just on successful export business, but also on improving the living conditions of farmers – who benefit from higher yields, improved quality, and better prices. Another goal is to maintain the village structures that are of importance to people’s lives.

Bayer is engaged in 240 food chain partnership projects worldwide, for example in southern Europe, South Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Projects primarily involve the cultivation of fruit and vegetable varieties.
However, Bayer still wants to do more. In the coming years the company aims to further drive forward the food chain partnerships worldwide. Existing projects are being expanded and new projects initiated with food industry partners. For consumers around the world, this means more high-quality and affordable food.

For Bayer, sustainability means ensuring future viability. It is therefore firmly established in our core business. Food chain partnerships are thus a key element of the Bayer Sustainable Development Program launched at the end of 2009. With this program, Bayer is responding to global challenges including not just food safety, but also healthcare, climate protection, and resource efficiency. As a research-based enterprise, we want to contribute to tackling these challenges successfully. We want to take on responsibility for the world of tomorrow – a world that will change significantly.