In Bayer’s first-ever e-commerce collaboration in India, the company has tied up with AgroStar, a Pune based e-commerce firm in the agricultural segment. Under the partnership, farmers can order Bayer’s seeds and crop protection products for their entire crop lifecycle and receive agronomic advisory through AgroStar’s digital agri-tech platform. Home delivery of agri-inputs can currently be availed by farmers in North, West & Central India, with plans to extend the scope to other geographies in the future.

In the current COVID-19 lockdown situation, the partnership has enabled last mile delivery of Bayer’s seeds and crop protection products for multiple crops directly to farmer’s doorsteps. With agri-input shops remaining partly shut, AgroStar is fulfilling farmers’ orders through its 500+ strong network of last mile delivery partners, who are doing doorstep delivery of agri-inputs, while following hygiene and social distancing norms prescribed by the government. More than 15,000 farmers have benefitted from this service from the comfort of their homes and have avoided stepping out to buy agri-inputs ahead of the Kharif season.

“We are happy to partner with AgroStar and serve farmers during the current difficult situation and even beyond. The Go-to-Market approaches in the Indian agri-input industry have been static over the last five decades. With the rise of digitalization, the industry will witness very dynamic shifts over the next few years,” said Simon Wiebusch, Chief Operating Officer for Bayer India’s Crop Science Division. Adding further he said, “With increasing incidence of online e-commerce platforms, the trend is fast catching up in the agricultural space and is here to stay. We want to provide farmers diverse choices beyond the traditional services they rely on and create a more customer-centric experience.”

“What inspires us at AgroStar is our mission of ‘Helping Farmers Win’. An agri-ecosystem based on collaborations can deliver greater value to farmers in India. We are excited to partner with Bayer to make their wide range of seeds and crop protection products available at farmers’ doorsteps across the country. Good quality agri-inputs, coupled with our digital agronomy solutions have the potential to significantly increase farm productivity and farmer incomes across the country,” said Shardul Sheth, CEO and Co-Founder of AgroStar.

About Bayer

Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the life science fields of health care and nutrition. Its products and services are designed to benefit people by supporting efforts to overcome the major challenges presented by a growing and aging global population. At the same time, the Group aims to increase its earning power and create value through innovation and growth. Bayer is committed to the principles of sustainable development, and the Bayer brand stands for trust, reliability and quality throughout the world. In fiscal 2019, the Group employed around 104,000 people and had sales of € 43.5 billion. Capital expenditures amounted to € 2.9 billion and R&D expenses to € 5.3 billion. For more information, go to www.bayer.com.

About AgroStar

AgroStar is India’s foremost AgTech start-up working on the mission of #HelpingFarmersWin by providing a complete range of agri solutions at the fingertips of farmers. AgroStar’s tech platform provides a combination of agronomy advice coupled with service and agri-input products that enable farmers to reduce cultivation costs and significantly improve their farm productivity & income. AgroStar operates across multiple states in the country and services over one million farmers through its digital platform. Farmers can avail agri solutions for their entire crop lifecycle with a simple ‘missed call’ or through the AgroStar mobile app available on the Google PlayStore. The app is the most engaged and amongst the highest-rated farming focused apps in India. For more information, please visit www.corporate.agrostar.in.

Media Contacts

Saswati Panigrahi
Corporate Communications, Bayer CropScience Limited
E-mail: saswati.panigrahi@bayer.com

Asha Panicker
Corporate Communications, AgroStar
E-mail: asha.panicker@agrostar.in

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.