Our holistic approach towards more sustainable food systems

Innovative solutions are set to further accelerate the transition to more sustainable food systems – all farmers need tools and knowledge to restore and regenerate while growing quality food and securing their profits. Rice fields and regenerative practices on independent farms show one way we’re yielding promising results.

More sustainable food systems demand a more regenerative approach to agriculture. Defining the practices that are best suited to farmers’ needs, growing regions, climates and crops grown there represents the first step. A critical dimension to determine where to start innovating is measuring effectiveness – especially on soil health and yield. These two components of regenerative agriculture focus on better outcome in the right way, while still being profitable. Soil health is the most unexplored part of agriculture where we can find many benefits . ?How can we reduce on-field greenhouse gas emissions? What’s the potential to reduce the environmental impact of crop protection? How can we improve water use? What’s the best way to support all of our farmers with their resource management and their margins? Subsequently, we look at creating or leveraging the infrastructure to ensure support to implement the practices is reaching farmers who need it, thereby maximizing adoption of new sustainable solutions.

Turning challenges into opportunities – in smallholder regions

As we are in a global water crisis with agriculture accounting for nearly 70% of global freshwater use, there’s clearly a lot of potential to save resources and help address the water challenges that farmers are facing, especially smallholders in water scarce regions. To address this issue, Bayer developed a dedicated approach to improve?water use and quality along the value chain, and we took a closer look at how we can build climate resilience and promote sustainable water usage: Rice as important diet staple offers great opportunities to reduce water use, especially given traditional puddled rice cultivation practices are responsible for up to 43% of global freshwater use. So, what if we transformed the cropping system?

Starting with essential inputs

Direct seeded rice can be sown directly in the soil, which means there’s no longer the need to transplant rice seedlings into paddy fields. It’s one of our most promising solutions to support sustainable rice production, reducing water use by up to 40% and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by up to 45%. Besides saving resources, it also reduces labor-intensive manual farming practices, a major pain point for farmers as they struggle to find workers. Indian farmers who are growing direct seeded rice save costs for labor, and practices even show potential to improve soil health as fields are no longer flooded to cultivate the crop. So, you see the wins.

Practice makes profits

We set ourselves the target to improve water use per kilogram of crop by 25% by 2030 by transforming rice-cropping systems for our smallholder customers in the relevant regions where we operate, starting in India[1]. But it’s essential to make it lucrative for them too. Getting farmers access to these practices and resources means reaching remote regions with effective training and knowledge transfer – how do you sow these seeds, how is it different to conventional methods? And what can we learn from each other – generations of rice farming businesses – to optimize the process and make it profitable for them?

Through the DirectAcres program we’re working with partners across the rice value chain?to support smallholders during the transition to cultivating direct seeded rice. The farmers get access to agronomic advice to make sure they are successful in their first attempt, because we know it's their family’s income at stake. And it works: Our report indicates that 99% of participating farmers achieved successful plant establishment and 75% were able to increase their return on investment compared to growing rice using the conventional transplanted method. Further expanding the initiative, we’re planning to reach over two million early-adopter smallholder rice farmers by 2030 – bringing the direct seeded rice system to one million hectares in India. This year, we plan to introduce DirectAcres in the Philippines, getting one step closer to fulfilling our target by enabling even more growers in Southeast Asia to access these valuable tools.

Connecting farmers from around the world

Direct seeded rice offers an example of how we can support effective and economic practice among farmers through access to tools and support in the field. Beyond rice, the topic of regenerative practice also offers fertile ground for discussing ways to move forward with innovation and reach farmers across the world. Through our Bayer ForwardFarming network , we’re working together with independent farmers and scientific experts to improve agronomic practices conserving soil health, biodiversity and enabling environmental impact reduction. Our goal is to inspire a greater number of farmers to adopt regenerative agriculture practices because it makes business sense for them, and through demonstrating on-farm practices on independent farms, we can bridge the gap between science and practice. Through in-person farm visits and virtual events we’re fostering dialogue between farmers, industry, academia, and public to bring topics on the table that affect daily business on the farm and challenge unrealistic ideals of ‘saving the planet’ by having the hard conversations about what works on-farm and what doesn’t, with a clear focus on growing nutritious food and restoring depleting resources.

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What the report doesn’t tell you

Yes, we made bold commitments ?to transform the world’s agricultural systems by 2030, and that's why we need to keep up with our efforts. Globally, we have planetary needs, food needs and farming needs. We are researching, innovating, transferring knowledge and supporting farmers with the integration of new practices. But we are doing it very closely with our farmers. The truth is, we are constantly learning from our farmers – as they are the ones directing us to find ?solutions that allow them to produce quality food while also being economically viable. This is essential to ensuring we evolve our food systems, regenerate nature, and achieve incremental milestones.

Regenerative practices that preserve and replenish nature's resources are critical to ensuring nutritious, quality yields enabling worldwide food and nutrition security.?Kelly Bristow - Global Nutrition Affairs Lead

Read the full Bayer Sustainability Report here

Learn more about our Water Strategy here and visit our RegenAg Hub .

[1] base year calculated with data from 2021, validation process still ongoing