Bayer will work toward increasing the sustainable productivity for 100 million smallholder farmers through empowerment and access to agricultural products and expertise by 2030.
Joining like-minded companies in the private sector, Bayer has signed the Zero Hunger Private Sector Pledge with a 160 million U.S. dollar commitment dedicated to help end global hunger. The Pledge recognizes the need for governments and the private sector to work together to end food scarcity. Companies taking the pledge commit to investing money, resources and expertise in areas of concern within regions where they do business. Bayer’s commitment will go toward communities in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
“At Bayer, where we work every day toward realizing our vision of Health for all, Hunger for none, it’s agonizing to know that one in every 10 people worldwide goes to bed hungry,” said Rodrigo Santos, Member of the Board of Bayer AG and President of the company’s Crop Science Division who will outline Bayer’s commitment during a panel discussion in the Sustainable Development Goals tent at The World Economic Forum in Davos. “This crisis affects us all and needs the support of everyone to solve it. Our pledge further puts into practice Bayer’s commitment to help end hunger through alignment of our investments and business operations to achieve this goal.”
As a global leader in agriculture dedicated to advancing sustainable farming for the benefit of growers, consumers, and the planet, Bayer drives its Zero Hunger Pledge commitments on multiple levels. This includes helping smallholder farmer’s access seeds which contain the latest technology, educating communities on sustainable agricultural practices, providing growers with farming solutions, and introducing smallholder farmers to new income-generating opportunities.
More than half of Bayer’s investment to be in vegetable seeds and R&D to support smallholder farmers.Through Bayer’s Vegetable Seeds business, these farmers will receive improved varieties of quality seeds critical to local diets like okra and bitter gourd. They will also gain access to innovative farming solutions, designed to reduce field and post-harvest losses, such as in the Ansal tomato. This variety provides longer shelf life and fruit firmness which is already helping to decrease losses in India from about 30 percent to less than 10 percent. Donating vegetable seeds to nonprofit organizations is also part of the commitment, to help combat hunger and promote the increased consumption of fruits and vegetables.
