Bayer Climate Program - Farming First

24. Februar 2009

Bayer CropScience Sustainability Officer Dr. Arlin Bostian presents new initiative at UN Commission on Sustainable Development

“Farming First”: Call to Action for Global Food Security

Dr. Arlin Bostian, Bayer CropScience Senior Vice President Research and Development North America and Global Sustainability Officer

New York City – International farmer, scientist, and business and industry associations released a call to action at the UN Commission on Sustainable Development in New York on February 23. Their joint initiative “Farming First” was presented by Dr. Arlin Bostian, Bayer CropScience Senior Vice President Research and Development North America and Global Sustainability Officer. The action plan calls upon policymakers and practitioners to safeguard the food supply of a growing world population by focusing on a sustainable increase of the global agricultural output.

Introducing the “Farming First” initiative to the UN Commission, Arlin Bostian underlined the urgency of putting farmers back into the focus of international agricultural policy: “Future rises in food prices will be exacerbated without the techniques and technologies we have now to increase production being applied more sustainably in all regions. Plus we need to continue developing technologies to further food production and rural development in an environmentally-responsible, socially sensitive manner,” said Arlin Bostian.

Innovation and knowledge to match local needs
“Farming First” aims at such a change, ensuring that innovation and knowledge match the local needs. Its goal is to increase the agricultural output, particularly in the developing world, by improving productivity, leveraging knowledge networks and helping farmers become small-scale entrepreneurs. It calls on governments, businesses, scientists, farmers’ organizations and other civil society groups to focus on the source of food security. The action plan wants to help the millions of farm families, especially smallholders, to grow more crops sustainably through effective markets, more collaborative research and committed knowledge sharing.

Sharing Knowledge to help farmers improve their output

Areas for Action
“Farming First” is based on an alarming set of facts and figures on global food supply which require political action: The ratio of arable land to population is expected to decline by up to 55% by 2030. By 2025, 1.8 billion people will be living with acute water scarcity. The climate change will put regional and global food supplies at risk. The basic livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people in developing countries will be threatened by a more extreme and variable climate.

The joint initiative therefore proposes action in six key areas:

Safeguarding natural resources by protecting soil quality, managing water resources, preserving ecosystems
Sharing Knowledge to help farmers improve their output
Building local access to finance and infrastructure
Protecting harvest to make sure that crop yields do not get lost
Enabling access to market, helping farmers to become small-scale entrepreneurs
Prioritizing research imperatives in order to react to global issues such as water availability, climate change and soil fertility

Bayer CropScience research scientists assess enhanced stress tolerance characteristics in a new generation of hybrid rice.

UN Commission for Sustainable Development (CSD)
The current 17th round of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD-17) focuses solely on agriculture. During the current sessions in New York from February 23 – 27, nine so-called “Major Groups” will present their papers. The “Farming First” initiative was developed by three of the Major Groups within the CSD: Business & Industry”, “Scientific & Technological Communities” and “Farmers”. As a spokesman for “Farming First”, Bayer CropScience Sustainability Officer Arlin Bostian represented the joint perspective of the global agricultural industry.

Increased productivity thanks to agricultural technology

left: High productivity uses less land: Natural habitats are conserved.
right: Low productivity uses more land: Natural habitats and biodiversity are destroyed.

Forward-Looking Statements
This news release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by Bayer Group or subgroup management. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. These factors include those described by Bayer in published reports. These reports are available on the Bayer website at http://www.bayer.com/. The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.