BAYER
Alongside offsetting the ' insetting pathway ' is just as important for Bayer . Bayer is not alone in its quest to become carbonneutral by 2030 , not only through its own operations but also its supply chain . “ Take the example of the big food distributors like Cargill and Metro : their supply chain is mainly the growers and it ' s in their interests , too , to incentivise the farmers . So both through offsetting and insetting farmers will find an opportunity in the future if they change their approach , and face a disadvantage if they don ' t . We are here to help them .”
Making sustainable agriculture pay Bayer is taking great strides expanding its sustainable initiatives . “ I think the most spectacular steps forward were our first pilots in the area of climate-smart agriculture . We want to incentivise growers for carbon sequestration and for a way of doing agriculture which helps to reduce emissions or even put carbon back into the soil . We already have our Carbon Initiative running in Brazil and the USA , and this year we rolled it out to seven countries in Europe .” The principal aim is to reward growers for adopting climate-smart farming practices like using cover crops , tillage reduction , crop rotations and precision nitrogen application . These activities sequester carbon in the soil while improving soil health , resilience and productivity as well as limit emissions .
It ' s not always this easy to see the right ways forward , he continues , pointing to the example of rice culture in Asia . Traditionally rice is grown in flooded paddy fields : as well as irrigating the rice , the water also acts as a herbicide , so the rice grows out of the water without weeds to compete with – a double benefit . “ But there ' s a problem . Many areas don ' t have enough water already and that ' s a problem that we know will get worse . And a hidden problem is that tremendous amounts of methane are formed underwater , in the anaerobic conditions at the roots of the rice plant . Paddy rice is a huge emitter of greenhouse gas and you could make a big saving on emissions and water use by going over to dry-seeded rice , hybrid rice , or even other crops . There ' s not a single way to do sustainable agriculture .”
Embracing the concerns that people have over biodiversity , emissions , genetically modified organisms and the like and businesses have to find a new language to
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