How Much Food Can We Afford to Lose?

It's impossible to understate the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on both the agriculture industry and society as a whole. I've seen firsthand both the struggle and resiliency of our global farmer customers and internal team to uphold the food production cycle against unfathomable circumstances. However, I was stunned to see the latest forecast from the World Food Programme, which estimates the number of people suffering from acute hunger could nearly double this year to 265 million due to COVID-19. An example of the pandemic’s impact can be seen in India, whose healthcare infrastructure is being overwhelmed by COVID-19 as the government was forced to ease lockdown restrictions because of skyrocketing unemployment leading to severe economic hardship and starvation. Never before have we seen this precarious balance between health security and food security play out on a global scale.

The situation is even more concerning when we factor in the challenges we already faced to ensure an adequate supply of safe, nutritious food for a growing population expected to reach nearly 10 billion people by 2050. Farmable land is growing scarce by the day, not to mention the threat of looming natural events that endanger harvests and drive up food prices.

Just look at the recent perfect storm of unfortunate events that have converged on Sub-Saharan Africa as proof. The COVID-19 pandemic is simply the latest catastrophe in a region already devastated by locust outbreaks, droughts and Cyclones Idai and Kenneth. More than 40 percent of the area's residents live below the poverty line, with many working as subsistence farmers that depend on rain-fed agriculture, herding and fishing for survival.

This year has demonstrated more than any other just how prominent the threat of food insecurity is in low- and middle-income countries. We cannot afford to wait any longer to amplify our efforts to protect our food supply and preserve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers and the communities that rely on them for survival.

Investing in a Better Tomorrow

In addition to the urgent action we need to take today to avert famine, we need to be thinking about how to make our global food systems more resilient tomorrow. Even a small increase in productivity can reduce the number of malnourished children by seven million (5 percent), and the population at risk of hunger by 160 million (23 percent).

For the Crop Science Division of Bayer, resilience means investing in new seed and crop protection products that improve yields under difficult conditions. It also means leveraging the power of data and technology to enable sustainable farming practices that spare land and resources and delivering on our commitment to serve more smallholder farmers globally.

Maximizing African Farmland

Overcoming food security vulnerabilities often requires action at a local level. Bayer proactively engages with governments, academic institutions, private sector partners and intergovernmental bodies to implement programs that improve conditions for smallholders in hard-hit areas, such as Africa. I am proud to see the results of these efforts so far.

• Our Water-Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA) project in Sub-Saharan Africa combines a diversity of skills and advanced breeding techniques to deliver drought-tolerant seed varieties to growers in five Sub-Saharan countries, with the goal of improving harvests by 20 to 35 percent.
• In partnership with The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), we are collaborating with West African National Research Systems to develop and deliver new pest- and disease-resistant cowpea varieties that will improve area farmers' nutritional and economic security.
• In Ethiopia, we are honored to work with Fair Planet for “Bridging the Seed Gap,” a project that facilitates smallholder farmers’ access to high-quality vegetable seed varieties tailored to withstand varying local growing conditions.
• Globally, we are working with a consortium of experts to solve the Tropical Race 4 (TR4) disease crisis in the global banana crop, which threatens the economic and food security of millions in the developing world.
• We also recently completed a four-year project to introduce our holistic Root2Success crop production program across smallholder potato and sweet potato farms in Kenya. Root2Success uses a combination of preventive and curative applications and drip irrigation to protect crops from soil-borne pests and diseases at the root level. Ultimately, participating growers doubled their yields and enjoyed significant revenue boosts as a result. We plan to expand Root2Success throughout even more African fields in the coming years.

Better Farms, Better Lives

Beyond the conditions that threaten their harvests, struggling growers also face challenges ranging from a lack of access to the financial resources necessary for purchasing inputs to a slow (or non-existent) sales market. These obstacles can place added burden on growers that at times can feel impossible to remove.

Bayer recognizes that the best way to shield growers from this cycle is to prevent them from entering it at all. That's why we recently announced our Better Farms, Better Lives initiative to aid the individuals and regions most impacted by the COVID-19 crisis and other devastating events. Bayer will contribute high-performing hybrid seeds and crop protection products to farmers around the world to support their efforts to sustain their families, communities and nations.

We recognize that better farms lead to better lives for the farmers and those around them, and we hope that these improved inputs can place them on a path to success in light of recent events.

While the recent hunger projections are sobering, the fight to feed the world is winnable through collaboration and action. The COVID-19 pandemic simply reinforced the need to support and empower the smallholder farmers who bear the weight of their families and communities. By helping these growers take the first steps to recovery, we can further prevent this health crisis – and future ones – from becoming one of hunger.