Healthy living and lifestyle
Geopolitical tensions and repercussions from the pandemic continue to disrupt supply chains, leading to increased costs for farmers.
32%
Proportion of the worldwide disease burden that would be removed if malnutrition were eradicated.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
52
grow and protect their harvest,” Hennig explains. “For instance, new breeding technologies like gene editing that can help make plants more resilient to weather extremes or pests. This means we can reduce the use of plant protection at the same time. Our way forward is an approach to regenerative agriculture, an outcome-based system that combines practices like no-till farming with innovative seeds, modern crop protection and digital technologies.” This task holds some urgency. By 2050, the world will need to feed ten billion people on less land – all with less water and fewer resources. Agriculture could play an integral role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, promoting biodiversity, and enhancing resilience in food systems. It goes without saying, however, that this will only be possible through scientific innovation. As Hennig puts it: “Agriculture needs to transform to help farmers adapt to climate change, increase farm productivity, and increase food, feed and fuel output for a growing population while renewing nature. In other words, producing more with less resources while restoring more.” There are plenty of good examples here in practice. For one thing, Bayer has rolled out special maize varieties in Africa, which are more drought- tolerant and resistant to certain pests. In India, it has created hybrid tomatoes that can withstand soaring temperatures, while short-stature corn in the US is designed to cope better in storms and heavy rain. Bayer is also working on biological solutions to partly replace the need for synthetic fertiliser, reducing environmental impact without sacrificing yield. That’s echoed, Hennig adds, by attempts to shift how produce is grown. The company is looking
to bring a ‘direct-seeded rice system’ to the major rice-producing countries – which involves sowing the rice seeds directly into the fields, as opposed to transplanting existing seedlings.
“This will help farmers to reduce water consumption by up to 40% and greenhouse gas emissions by up to 45%, and farmers’ dependence on scarce and costly manual labour by up to 50%. This will be transformational to rice production,” says Hennig. Beyond that, Bayer works to support smallholder farmers, whose daily work is crucial for food security in many African and Asian countries. It hopes to reach 100 million smallholders by 2030, providing them with training, guidance and crop protection tools to bolster productivity. Already, Bayer is halfway to meeting that target, while also launching a Nutrient Gap Initiative – this aims to expand access to essential vitamins and minerals to 50 million people a year by 2030. Thinking about the scale of global food insecurity and malnutrition, it is easy to feel despondent – not least because individuals can only do so much. Yet as the work by Bayer vividly shows, the crisis is not going unheeded, with many public and private sector organisations intent on finding solutions. Whether or not we can meet the lofty UN goal of ‘creating a world free of hunger’, helping more people eat better on a budget is surely more than a pipe dream. “Although nutrition starts with getting enough calories, good nutrition ultimately requires people to consume varied food groups, ensuring a diverse diet,” summarises Hennig. “We aspire to a future in which the macro and micronutrient needs of individuals of all ages across the globe are met and malnutrition is a thing of the past.”
Ingredients Insight /
www.ingredients-insight.com
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