Caring for People and the Planet

In cooperation with growers and partners across the value chain, we are committed to ensuring that the development and usage of crop protection products and technologies is safe for operators, consumers and the environment.

Safety is paramount in any industry, and agriculture is no different. The protection of input manufacturers, growers and workers on the farm, value chain partners, as well as consumers is absolutely essential, as is the preservation of the environment. In agriculture, we refer to the responsible and ethical management of a product throughout its lifecycle—from the research, development and testing of products, to their production and delivery to growers, to their application and disposal —as Product Stewardship.

Proper Product Stewardship practices are central to ensuring the availability of high-quality products, services and best practices by promoting compliance with legal and regulatory requirements, helping facilitate trade, maximizing product potential and sustainability, and minimizing risks to people and the environment.

Read the Bayer position on Product Stewardship in the Agricultural Business

As an industry leader in agriculture we’re uniquely positioned to help promote safe and productive agricultural operations around the world. This is why we work diligently to ensure that our products, services and technologies are safe, sustainable and environmentally responsible, while meeting grower expectations and needs. A key part of this is ensuring that our employees and growers are trained to use our products safely, ecologically, and effectively—from the handling and application of the products to the disposal of empty containers.

The importance of empty container management

The main environmental and human safety concerns related to crop protection containers include: 

• Plastic waste in the environment 
• Unsafe disposal options (e.g. on-site incineration) 
• Remnants ending up in water sources 
• Reuse of containers for water or food 
• Misuse of empty containers (e.g. for playing) 

Safe use training and empty container management

Our product responsibility efforts span the value chain—from the research, development and testing of products, to their production and delivery to growers, to their application and disposal. Learn more about Product Stewardship across the value chain

When working with growers and the value chain, our Product Responsibility efforts focus on trainings on the safe use of pesticides for operators, consumers and the environment – in line with the International Code of Conduct for Pesticide Management (WHO, FAO, 2014). To do so, we leverage new technologies and services of handling, applying and disposing of crop protection products; and also promote responsible empty container management systems, especially in countries with less regulated waste management systems. 

To live up to our commitment to promote the safe use of crop protection products and tools, we are:  

The path ahead for product responsibility 

As a key focus of our sustainability strategy, we will be enhancing our efforts in promoting product responsibility in all the regions we serve. In the past few years, we’ve already moved from an ad hoc approach to delivering safe use trainings towards a more targeted and coordinated approach that increases overall outreach.  

In 2019, we confirmed over 1 million farmers trained in face-to-face trainings and in 2020, reached more than 1 million farmers with digital trainings when in-person trainings were not available due to health reasons. And this number only includes formally confirmed trainings, the reach to additional farmers is expected to be much larger. We’re continuing efforts to safely hold as many in-person trainings as possible but are particularly ramping up our investment in virtual and digital training to increase our reach, while ensuring the quality of training. This was especially important during challenging times such as the COVID-19 pandemic, when food security and safety are even more critical to the health of our society, and in-person trainings were more difficult to hold due to social distancing measures. Moreover, the ripple effect of trainings and virtual trainings has continual potential to have exponential reach.  

We’ll especially focus our resources on countries which have less national regulation for safe product use, and particularly with smallholder famers. Learn more about our commitment to empowering smallholder farmers 

Going forward we’ll continue to transparently report annually our progress on trainings and other initiatives that ensure the customers we serve have the necessary information to use our products safely and sustainably. Learn about our Product Stewardship Efforts in our 2020 Sustainability Report.

Product responsibility in practice on the Damianshof ForwardFarm

Located in Rommerskirchen, Germany, Bernd Olligs is the sixth generation of his family to own and operate the Damianshof farm, and he takes safe and sustainable use of crop protection seriously. “Water pollution control is resource protection,” states Bernd Olligs, and one of his top priorities is to systematically manage water protection on his farm to ensure absolutely no crop protection residues enter the water. To ensure that these residues do not enter the water system when meticulously cleaning his spraying equipment, Bernd uses an innovative biological system called Phytobac®. Installed on his farm in 2012, it collects water used to clean sprayers and makes use of microorganisms to biologically break down any residues found in the water.  

At Damianshof, like on all Bayer ForwardFarms, using crop protection products responsibly doesn’t just apply to use in the fields. In order to guarantee the comprehensive protection of the farmer, as a user, and of the general public, as consumers, Bernd only uses seeds and crop protection products that have undergone comprehensive safety testing and registration. Further innovative solutions such as the closed filling system easyFlow® M protects the farmer from direct contact with crop protection products. The system facilitates the safe filling and dosing of crop protection products into the application tank as well as in the cleaning of empty canisters. It prevents drips or splashes, which is good both for the farmer and the environment.  

Actions to Date:

• Growing Matters Consortium BeSure! Stewardship Initiative