Delivering on our Sustainability Targets
Farming has always thrived on innovation. From the very beginning, farmers have sought better ways to nourish themselves, their families and their communities. This continues today as we continually strive to find more sustainable solutions that can help farmers grow enough to support a growing population.
At Bayer, our global presence, leading market position in agriculture and tailored farming solutions are driving the shift toward regenerative agriculture. We aim to decrease the climate footprint of farming, reduce the environmental impact of crop protection, support smallholder farmers, and improve water productivity.
At the same time, we are working on improving soil health, as well as preserving biodiversity, which are key aspects of a regenerative agriculture system. We're doing this while also supporting farmers in their efforts to increase agricultural yields, farm productivity and incomes with new sources of revenue.
Our Crop Science division’s sustainability transformational targets focus on the following key areas:
By 2030, Bayer aims to:
- Enable our farming customers to reduce their on-field greenhouse gas emissions per mass unit of crop produced by 30% by 2030 compared to the overall base year emission intensity1. This applies to the highest greenhouse gas emitting crop systems in the regions Bayer serves with its products.2
- Reduce the treated-area-weighted environmental impact per hectare of our global crop protection portfolio by 30% by 2030 against a 2014 – 2018 average baseline.
- Support a total of 100 million smallholder farmers in low-and middle-income countries (LMIC) by improving their access to agricultural products and services, including in collaboration with our partners.
- Support our smallholder customers to increase water productivity3 by 25% by 2030 against a 2019–2021 average baseline by transforming rice cropping in the relevant geographies where Bayer operates, starting in India4.
1 Our reduction target refers to an overall base year greenhouse gas intensity that includes the weighted emission intensities of 17 crop-country combinations (CCC). In 2024, the CCC Australia-Cotton was removed from the scope due to the unavailability of data. Base years are defined individually for each CCC, using data from either harvest year 2021 or 2022 depending on the availability of data. Base years were adjusted in 2024 due to additional data requirements based on an updated GHG calculator methodology and lack of data availability from prior years.
2 The CCCs Italy-Corn and Spain-Corn were not selected based on these factors but were additionally included because data were already available.
3 Water productivity is defined as kg of crop yield per volume of water used (kg/m3).
4 Our water target is currently focusing on the Bayer DirectAcres Initiative, which aims at supporting farmers shift successfully from transplanted puddled rice to mechanized direct seeded rice.