Bayer-Monsanto to expand links with small farmers in India post merger

Global seed major Monsanto, which globally merged into global healthcare and crop protection giant Bayer but is yet to have the integration in place in India, has plans to take its mobile-enabled digital farming platform for small farmers in India beyond the pilot phase. This is will be done after the merger, hopefully in 2019, in India. The platform, 'FarmRise' is to see an expanded roll out in Asia, Africa and South America by Bayer subsidiary 'The Climate Corporation'.

In August this year, global seed major Monsanto merged into health care and crop protection major Bayer. In the first major event since the coming together, Bayer organised in Germany, a major meet to outline its vision for the future of agriculture. The meeting was held to bring together its farming stakeholders, academia, NGOs, industry majors and some leading media publications.

According to the company, in India 85 per cent of the farms are less than 2 hectares in size. As these farmers own small plots of lands and get few opportunities to receive agronomic training or access credit, they often struggle to achieve greater productivity, increase their incomes and build resilience.

Private sector partnerships, it says, are helping farmer access agronomic advice, as well as market data so they can get the best price for their products and plan for the future.

Since 2010, Monsanto has worked to develop the agronomic skills of small-scale farmers in India, as well as improve their access to up-to-date information on weather and market prices. FarmRise's "mobile farm care program" is a mobile digital platform used by farmers who plant maize, cotton and vegetable seeds. Currently, it says, there are more than four million farmers enrolled in this service in India