Bayer positions itself to cash in on regenerative agriculture

Bayer's CropScience division is planning to capitalise on opportunities presented by the shift to regenerative agriculture. Glenneis Kriel reports on the company's plans.

- Glenneis Kriel

Regenerative agriculture is not just a ‘buzzword’ for Bayer, but a means of creating a more sustainable food system with the capacity to feed the world’s growing population, while using less water and land, and with a smaller environmental impact.

This was according to Rodrigo Santos, president of Bayer’s CropScience division, who spoke at the recent Bayer CropScience Innovation Summit streamed from New York, US.

Jeremy Williams, Bayer’s head of commercial ecosystems and digital farming solutions of the CropScience division, said that Bayer wanted to define, reshape and increase the area under regenerative agriculture to over 162 million hectares. He said this would contribute to the company’s efforts to reduce the environmental impact of its crop protection solutions and the greenhouse gas emissions of the cropping systems it served by 30%, as well as improve the livelihoods of more than 100 million smallholder farmers by 2030. The company also aimed to reduce the water used to produce certain crops, such as rice, by 25% over this time.

Williams envisioned that Bayer could access more than €100 billion (about R2 trillion) in markets servicing regenerative agriculture, which would double the division’s potential market, which currently stood at more than €100 billion for its core portfolio alone.

Several Bayer CropScience leaders and scientists spoke about the way in which the company would be able to boost regenerative agriculture through five innovation platforms, namely breeding, biotechnology, chemistry, biologicals and data science.

Robert Reiter, head of research and development at the CropScience division, said Bayer was well positioned to cash in on this market, as it was already a market leader.