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Bayer teams up with Agribazaar for Better Life Farming projects in India
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Friday, 06 March, 2020, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Our Bureau, Mumbai
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Bayer has roped in Agribazaar, an Indian agritech platform as an alliance partner for Better Life Farming projects in India.The latter will provide market linkages to smallholder farmers through its e-marketplace and help farmers get better prices for their produce.
Bayer will also work independently with Agribazaar to improve access of crop advisory and enable transfer of agri technologies to smallholder farmers.
Speaking about the partnership, Simon Wiebusch, chief operating officer, crop science division, India, Bayer, said, “At Bayer, we want to improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers.”
“When farmers get the right remunerative price for their produce, they are encouraged to adopt good agricultural practices and can afford modern agricultural technologies,” he added.
“However, no company can achieve this change alone as it requires the right eco-system, massive capacity building and meaningful collaborations along the agri value chain,” Wiebusch said.
“With Agribazaar, we aim to enhance our reach to smallholder farmers and offer personalised solutions, enabling them to achieve better harvests more sustainably,” he added.
Sharing his views, Amith Agarwal, co-founder and chief executive officer, Agribazaar, said, “Agribazaar’s digital platform, along with Bayer’s expertise in providing crop advisory and inputs, will help address Indian farmer’s problems - be it timely availability of advisory, inputs, price discovery, crop traceability or quality assurance. This partnership will help both buyers and sellers transact in a transparent and trusted ecosystem and provide integrated, cost-effective and timely solutions.”
Most farmers in India are smallholder farmers who farm on less than two acre of land. These farmers are vulnerable to challenges such as pests and crop diseases, lack of finance, adverse climate impacts, irrigation management, rural migration and fluctuating commodity prices. Because of these challenges, they are unable to realise their full farming potential.
Through its crop science business, Bayer works closely with smallholder farming communities to help them progress from subsistence farming to commercial farming and earn sustainable incomes from their small family farms.
In 2018, Bayer formed the Better Life Farming alliance, that brought together global and local partners across the agri value chain to help smallholder farmers unlock their farming potential.
In India, the Better Life Farming alliance is led by Bayer, International Finance Corporation (IFC, a member of the World Bank Group), Netafim, Yara Fertilisers, DeHaat and Big Basket.
Bayer is also working with a network of smallholder farmers who practice agri-entrepreneurship under its Better Life Farming projects for rice, corn and horticulture crops. With its growing network of agri-entrepreneurs, the company aims to serve 2.5 million smallholder farmers across India by 2025.
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