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, in the context of the UN Food Systems Summit of 2021 and as a part of the Summit’s Zero Hunger Coalition, 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 player 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.
More than half of Bayer’s investment to be in vegetable seeds and R&D to support smallholder farmers
Smallholder growers play a crucial role in eradicating hunger, and high-quality seeds are essential to their ability to produce safe and nutritious food for their communities. Through its pledge, Bayer will invest over 100 million U.S. dollars of its overall commitment into research and development to get quality vegetable seeds into the hands of smallholder farmers.
Bayer invests in education, training, R&D, technical assistance
Bayer’s remaining commitment includes investing through partnerships and additional programs. By supporting Better Life Farming, Bayer, with partners Netafim and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), will make farming solutions, agronomic advice, and good agricultural practices available to rural growers. Partnering with the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), Bayer, through its program BayG.A.P., supports farmers to get certified and connected to the food value chain. And the Modern Breeding Project with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) will use Bayer’s funding to support sustainable practices as well as education and training programs. This project alone is expected to benefit more than 100 million smallholder farmers who grow crops on about 60 million hectares in the humid and semi-arid zones of sub-Saharan Africa.
For more information:
Charla Lord
Bayer
Tel.: +1 314 694-2993
charla.lord@bayer.com
Alexander Gutmann
Tel.: +49 174 7306349
alexander.gutmann@bayer.com