Bayer CropScience's strategic crops: Soybeans --- the No. 1 protein crop

Soybeans, the largest source of protein for meat production, are grown on more than 100 million hectares worldwide. Main growing regions are North and South America (mainly USA, Brazil and Argentina) followed by Asia, mainly China and India. Global production amounted to about 260 million tons in 2012. USA, Brazil and Argentina make up roughly 80% of global production, while China is the largest importer (approx. 20% of global production) driven by increasing meat consumption.

Soybeans is one of the crops with the highest adoption rate of the no-till system. Being able to fix nitrogen from the air, the soybean is a crop which does not need supplemental nitrogen fertilizer. In the past fifty years, It has seen a steady agronomic evolution, and average yield has grown from about 1 ton/ha in the 1960s to 2.4 tons/ha in 2012.

Clear and focused strategy to address current and future grower needs

Bayer CropScience is striving to become a global market leader in enabling soybean production and a business partner for growers following a business model that integrates the seed and crop protection offers to its customers.

A high productivity and sustainable yield increase are the main objectives of soybean growers in order to fulfill the growing global demand for protein.To address this demand, the company is investing significant resources to create flexible, robust and convenient soybean management offers – thus driving up productivity and farm income.

Bayer CropScience’s innovations are targeted at addressing pressing soybean grower needs:

• Poncho™/VOTiVO™ and CropStar™ are seed-applied solutions that are among the best tools available to soybean growers to protect the plant above and below the ground from insects, with Poncho™/VOTiVO™ also fighting nematodes, devastating pests that attack roots and therefore can significantly reduce yield potential.

• Liberty Link™ herbicide tolerance plus Liberty™ herbicide is a weed management solution that helps sustain soybean production in a scenario of increasing weed resistance development.

• Fox™ and Stratego™YLD are innovative fungicide solutions against Asian Soybean Rust and other diseases that reduce yields, posing a constant risk to the grower’s income.

• In the field of insect management, solutions like Belt™ and Connect™ are modern tools to manage all different species of caterpillars and sucking pests.

Building up a leading seeds & traits platform in soybeans

To further build the soybean seed business, Bayer CropScience’s strategy is based on 5 cornerstones:

• High-quality germplasm
• The establishment of a breeding network across the main growing regions in North and Latin America
• Development of a broad and differentiated trait platform – based on proprietary traits, complemented by inlicensed technologies
• A business model that integrates the seeds and crop protection offers and
• Options to outlicense our proprietary traits

Recent acquisitions mark the Bayer CropScience entry point into the soybean seed business, including among others the Hornbeck seed business (USA), CVR Plant Breeding, SoyTech and Wehrtec in Brazil and the 2012 acquisition of the germplasm assets of ProSoy Genetics.

Trait R&D capabilities have been strongly enhanced through the acquisition of Athenix Corp. in 2009, a leading gene discovery platform for weed, insect and nematode control

In addition, Bayer is involved in cooperations in the area of trait development:

• Collaboration with M.S. Technologies to co-develop novel herbicide tolerance traits
• Collaboration with Syngenta to co-develop HPPD traits
• The Bayer CropScience breeding network currently consists of more than 10 stations across the main growing regions in the Americas (USA, Puerto Rico, Brazil and Argentina) and further expansion is planned.
• The main soybean research center is located in Morrisville (N.C., USA)