The Zero Hunger Pledge

Bayer is a Life Science company with a more than 150-year history and core competencies in the areas of health care and agriculture.

The Crop Science division is a world-leading agriculture enterprise driving research in biology, biotechnology, crop protection, and data science, allowing us to deliver tailored solutions to farmers faster than ever before. In 2020, our Crop Science division employed around 33,000 people in 143 countries, and invested an unmatched 2 billion euros in R&D.

Through traditional and advanced breeding techniques, as well as research in biotechnology, we’re developing seeds and traits that provide farmers with crops that combat environmental challenges — like pests, disease, and drought — while providing more choice for consumers. 

Our researchers are using data science each day to target, test, and select only the molecules with the most favorable toxicological profiles for our crop protection products, helping farmers defend their crops against weeds, disease, and harmful insects and fungi in an environmentally-sustainable way.

Using digital tools that integrate data from farm equipment, satellites, field sensors, irrigation systems, drones, and other input sources, we’re empowering farmers to make better decisions through data science and predictive analytics, with detailed, real-time assessments of growing conditions and crop health.

Bayer’s commercial portfolio of sustainable solutions also includes a carbon farming model that provides financial incentives to farmers who uptake sustainable practices.

Complementary to our core-business, we invest financial and in-kind resources into non-commercial development projects with multiple partners to improve the ability of smallholders in developing countries to access our solutions and other sustainable technologies, providing agronomic advise, training and stewardship to fully and sustainably leverage their potential, and facilitating their access to up- and down-stream value chain partners.

ESG / Sustainability / Food Systems

Climate change, biodiversity loss, and food insecurity are key challenges to a growing population. Sustainable agriculture – that is, all the tools and practices farmers use to improve productivity and grow safe, healthy food, all while preserving natural resources – can play a key role to provide solutions.

As a global leader in crop science, Bayer has a heightened responsibility and the unique potential to advance sustainable farming for the benefit of farmers, consumers, and the planet. That’s why, when it comes to managing our business, we’ve introduced three ambitious commitments to address these pressing challenges by 2030:
 

• Empower 100 million smallholder farmers in low- and middle-income countries to sustainably increase their productivity, improve the quality of their produce, and enhance their livelihoods by enabling their access to our products – including improved seeds, crop protection solutions, and digital farming tools – services – from training to stewardship and agronomic advice – and value chain partners. To date, we are reaching 45 million smallholder farmers in Asia (30 million), Africa (13 million), and Latin America (2 million).
   
• Reduce the global environmental impact Bayer’s of crop protection by 30 percent against the baseline by: (a) developing active ingredients with better environmental profile, ensuring lower effect on non-target plants and species compared to other products; (b) optimizing crop protection volumes required per hectare – e.g. through precision application (data-driven tools that ensure that the right amount of crop protection is applied by farmers in the right place and at the right time), seed treatment (seed-applied crop protection tools can significantly reduce the volume of chemicals used and therefore the potential exposure to wildlife and the environment), seeds and traits (crops bred and designed to better fight pests and diseases that attack them, ensuring that less chemical crop protection is needed), and chemical crop protection complemented with biologics to enhance integrated management practices and reduce pest resistance; (c) reducing the emissions of crop protection into the environment through mitigation measures such as drift reduction and buffer strips, and digitally enabled precision application. To evaluate the potential environmental impact of its crop protection portfolio, Bayer uses models developed by independent third parties and endorsed by UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative.
   
• Reduce by 30 percent greenhouse gas emissions produced by key crops in the main regions we serve. Bayer is deploying climate-smart seeds – including hybrid seeds for dry direct seeded rice to reduce methane emissions, short-stature corn to grow more using less land – improved crop genetics requiring less fertilizer, digital tools for precise fertilizer application, crop protection solutions allowing no-till farming, and microorganisms and inoculants. Through its Carbon Initiative, Bayer is giving financial incentives to farmers adopting cover crops, no-till farming, and crop rotation to maximize soil carbon, enrich soil nutrients and reduce fertilizer need.

Besides our efforts to mitigate the impact of farming on climate, in harmony with the Paris Agreement, we committed to become climate-neutral by 2030 by reducing its own emissions by >42% and offsetting remaining emissions through the purchase of recognized certificates. The company also cooperates with its suppliers and customers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions along the upstream and downstream value chain by at least 12.3% by 2030. These targets have been approved by the Science Based Target initiative led by Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), UNGC, WRI, and WWF.

Bayer applies the same rigor to achieving its sustainability targets as it does to its financial targets. We established an independent Sustainability Council, formed by external experts, and all our commitments have been reviewed and validated and are monitored by independent experts and auditors on the basis of scientific methodologies and parameters. Our progress is made public on an annual basis in Bayer’s Sustainability Reports. Moreover, achievement of our commitments is connected to the variable compensation of the Board of Management.

Bayer is committed to transparency by disclosing safety-relevant study summaries and granting non-commercial access to full study reports for our marketed crop protection products and genetically modified (GM) crops. At Bayer, we are consumers as well as scientists, and we take our responsibility for the safety of our products very seriously by conducting comprehensive safety studies according to scientific principles and the high-quality standards set by the regulators. Before they are put on the market, Bayer’s genetically modified (GM) crops undergo more food and environmental safety testing and oversight than any other agricultural product – including conventional (or non-GM) crops. The guidelines for establishing safety of GM crops that are followed by Bayer and recognized by regulatory authorities globally were developed over many years by international scientific bodies like the FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius Commission and the Organization for Economic Development (OECD). Only after Bayer has met internal safety testing requirements is the GM crop submitted to global regulatory authorities for their review. In the US, for example, after extensive safety testing is completed at Bayer, every genetically modified product goes through regulatory review to make sure it is safe to eat, safe to grow, and safe for the Environment.

Bayer is a founding member of the UN Global Compact since 2000, and we respect the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We support the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) and globally recognized declarations applicable for multinational corporations, including the OECD Guidelines for Multi-national Enterprises, and the Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy of the International Labour Organization (ILO MNE) and the latter’s core labor standards. We participated in the pilot project on the implementation of the OECD-FAO Guidance for Responsible Agricultural Supply Chains, which is based on and incorporates the UNGPs, ILO MNE, and the UN Committee on World Food Security’s Principles for Responsible Investment in Agriculture and Food Systems (CFS-RAI).

Bayer is also actively engaged in preventing child labor in the seed supply chain.

Last but not least, acknowledging Article 9.3 of the International Plant Treaty – which recognizes the “rights that farmers have to save, use, exchange and sell farm-saved seed/propagating material, subject to national law and as appropriate” – Bayer does not intend to enforce its intellectual property rights against smallholder farmers for private and non-commercial use of farm-saved seed to escape extreme poverty and will collaboratively work to integrate them into the world of commercial farming to improve their livelihood.