• Partnership will aim to empower FPOs and farmer cooperatives to spearhead agri-entrepreneurship, enhance access to quality Agri-inputs through digital capability building to enhance rural livelihoods and farm incomes
• Under the partnership, Bayer will also facilitate women-focused training on financial literacy, management and agri-business practices

The strategic collaboration aims to provide Indian farmers with access to quality agri-inputs through digital capability building and strengthen rural livelihoods and farm incomes. The partnership will support farmers in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala in the first phase of execution. Besides access to the entire range of Bayer’s agri-solutions from seed to harvest, farmers can also avail of crop-specific agronomic advisory through CSC’s online platform.

As part of the MoU, Smallholder farmers will be able to access timely crop advisory, transfer of good agricultural practices and access to premium Bayer products through CSC’s online portal. Gram Unnati will facilitate farmer mobilization and ensure market linkages. Together, Bayer and CSC-SPV aim to empower over 500,000 (0.5 million) smallholder farmers over the next two years. To facilitate easy access to quality inputs, agronomic support, and encourage agri-technology knowledge transfer based on the latest practices, Bayer will also nurture agri-entrepreneurs by leveraging village-level entrepreneurs of CSCs from within the local communities.

Simon-Thorsten Wiebusch, President, Bayer South Asia said, “Smallholder farmers are vital in ensuring food and nutritional security in the country and Bayer is dedicated to empowering them through the expansion of access to essential agricultural inputs and expert agronomic guidance, driven by digital innovation and collectivization. Our association with the Government of India’s Common Service Center and Gram Unnati will help bring us closer to our shared goal of empowering farmers as we bridge the gap to remote farming communities, promote financial literacy and foster an entrepreneurial spirit leading to optimized resource utilization, and maximizing farm potential to enhance their livelihoods sustainably.”

Sanjay Rakesh, MD & CEO, CSC-SPV said, “We are excited to collaborate with Bayer and strengthen our e-commerce platform to scale support to smallholder farmers through our technology-powered ecosystem. By leveraging our synergies with Bayer Crop Science Limited, we envision sustained enhancements in rural agriculture within the identified centres. This partnership will enable last mile access to tailored solutions, to better support the rural community and agri-entrepreneurs.”

Aneesh Jain, Founder & CEO, Gram Unnati said: “We are extremely delighted to work with Bayer CropScience and CSC e-Governance to play the role of a key facilitator in this ground-breaking association. We are already developing a system with CSC e-Governance to enable farmers to sell their end produce through the VLE network. This collaboration will enable farmers to get timely access to high quality agri inputs, thus further improving their crop quality and yields too."

The CSC scheme, a collaborative e-governance platform, is part of the Digital India programme. The Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) aims to facilitate the delivery of government, private and social sector services to Indian citizens through the CSC network. It supports linkages, connecting villages in India through high-speed internet and scaling the delivery of products & services to reach the last mile.

It also offers a robust project platform for ‘Better Life Farming Alliance’ led by Bayer CropScience Limited, through which the company can further contribute to sustainable income enhancement while promoting market-oriented agriculture practices and services amongst smallholder farmers. Under the partnership, Bayer will also facilitate women-focused training on financial literacy, management and agri-business practices. Furthermore, the company aims to strengthen the capacities of Farmer Producer Companies (FPCs) in alignment with their needs to enhance business and financial management. The collaboration will also support the scaling up and increased adoption of Bayer’s digital interventions amongst smallholder farmers, across the country.

The newly announced partnership follows an ongoing pilot engagement project running between Better Life Farming centres and CSC in Jharkhand’s Lohardega district since late 2020.

About Bayer

Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the life science fields of health care and nutrition. In line with its mission, “Health for all, Hunger for none,” the company’s products and services are designed to help people and the planet thrive by supporting efforts to master the major challenges presented by a growing and aging global population. Bayer is committed to driving sustainable development and generating a positive impact with its businesses. At the same time, the Group aims to increase its earning power and create value through innovation and growth. The Bayer brand stands for trust, reliability and quality throughout the world. In fiscal 2023, the Group employed around 100,000 people and had sales of 47.6 billion euros. R&D expenses before special items amounted to 5.8 billion euros. For more information, go to www.bayer.com.

About CSC SPV

Common Services Centers (CSC) are an integral part of the Digital India mission. They are access points for the delivery of Digital India services to rural and remote areas across the country and contribute towards the fulfillment of the vision of Digital India and the Government's mandate for a digitally and financially inclusive society. CSCs offer assisted access to e-services in India, focusing on enhancing governance. Apart from delivering essential government and public utility services, CSCs also deliver a range of social welfare schemes, financial services, educational courses, skill development courses, healthcare, agriculture services, and digital literacy.

About Gram Unnati

Gram Unnati is an agri value chain enterprise providing i) advisory services, ii) access to high quality inputs at low cost and iii) market linkages to marginal farmers along with iv) customized production, logistics and end-to-end quality control of agri produce to institutional buyers. The company was founded by IIT Kharagpur graduate Aneesh Jain in 2013. He realized that farmers and buyers often fall prey to value traps due to absence of a fully integrated platform. The company has a formidable advisory pool comprising seasoned agri professionals, ex civil servants, and industry body representatives. The company operates through a network of 30 district level centres spread across the nation, helping agro processors source quality cereals, oilseeds, pulses, fruits & vegetables directly from farmers.

Due to Gram Unnati’s unique technology platform to streamline supply demand matching, rich farmer level profiling, agro processor transactional data and 24x7 automated advisory, the company was able to achieve 5x growth during pandemic. Over the years, Gram Unnati has developed a network of 200,000 farmers across 7 states and has strong partnerships with 20+ large institutional buyers including marquee names.

Media Contact:

Snigdha Vishal

Communications, Bayer CropScience Limited

E-mail: snigdha.vishal@bayer.com

Forward-Looking Statements:

This release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by Bayer 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 discussed in Bayer’s public reports, which are available on the Bayer website at www.bayer.com. The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.