Hu Mengying, Chief operating officer of Bayer in Greater China: Biologics are becoming a new outlet in the agrochemical market

At present, Bayer currently has about 100 plant protection products in five categories in China, and is the first multinational company in China to obtain certification of green food production materials. Standing at the threshold of great changes unseen in the world in a century, agriculture has entered a deep-water stage of high-quality development. Some media interviewed Hu Mengying, Chief operating officer of Bayer Crop Science Greater China, on the new challenges and new development opportunities of Bayer in 2024.

Seize the Chinese opportunity of global regenerative agriculture

This year, Bayer Cropscience uses "collaborative innovation" and "regenerative agriculture" as key words. While conducting extensive cooperation with local governments, industries and enterprises, Bayer regards regenerative agriculture as an important direction to practice agricultural innovation and sustainability, leads the development of global agriculture, and contributes Bayer's strength to the sustainable and high-quality development of Chinese agriculture.

Bayer CropScience grasps the Chinese opportunity of global regenerative agriculture. In Bayer's view, regenerative agriculture, as an agricultural system aimed at "improving quality and efficiency, producing more with less, and recovering with high yield", is a sustainable solution to the systemic challenges of climate change and food security, and has unique development advantages and needs.

In this context, the Group standard defines the term "regenerative agriculture" : Regenerative agriculture aims to achieve agricultural sustainability through the conservation of land use and nature-based solutions, while reducing soil disturbance and chemical inputs. Regenerative agriculture is also a way to increase soil organic matter content, improve soil health, maximize biodiversity and be environmentally friendly.

Respond to changing needs and challenges with continuous innovation and differentiated technologies

Bayer's new CropKey method uses new technologies powered by artificial intelligence and computational modeling to discover "locks" that can alter or inhibit the action of proteins needed by weeds and pests, bringing breakthrough innovation to crop protection research and development.

While continuing to deepen research and development based on a global vision, Bayer is also continuing to increase investment in China. In 2023, Bayer officially opened its Innovation Center in Danyang, Jiangsu Province, one of 17 Bayer innovation centers around the world, equipped with modern agricultural facilities and professional R&D staff to conduct field testing and indoor research on a variety of key crop targets, enabling "innovation empowerment, digital development". In addition, Bayer is also actively exploring local cooperative innovation. 2023 to achieve cooperation with Sino-Agri and Hailir, through third-party authorization services and other models, to further expand the product line, help China's agriculture to reduce costs and increase efficiency, to meet the diversified needs of the agricultural market.

Biologics are becoming a new outlet in the world agrochemical market 

Focusing on product applications, biologics are becoming a new outlet in the world agrochemical market, not only with a wide range of applications, but also with outstanding advantages in terms of high safety, promoting plant health and environmental friendliness.

In addition, in the next few years, China's biological breeding industrialization will be further promoted, bringing certain opportunities to the agricultural market. Non-selective herbicides, such as Bayer's Glyphosate product Roundup ®, will have a wider space to play, and the application prospects will be expanded.

In China, Bayer continues to accelerate the pace of new product launches and plans to bring more new products to the market in 2024.

In addition, local cooperation has always been the focus of Bayer's attention: in terms of sustainability, Bayer has continued to promote the development of renewable agriculture in China in recent years, which will continue to be one of the key directions of Bayer's future development. Through the establishment of extensive cooperation with the upstream and downstream of the food chain, Bayer explores renewable agriculture solutions that are more suitable for China's national conditions, making concept advocacy and practical practice parallel, and helping China's agriculture to develop towards sustainable and high-quality.

In terms of agricultural services, Bayer takes the needs of farmers as the cornerstone. As of November 2023, the platform has more than 900 professional pilots, covering 35 counties and cities, and will promote the brand construction in 2024 to achieve further business expansion. In addition, Bayer will also integrate feedback from farmers to optimize the positioning of the digital agriculture platform and provide farmers with better information and community services.

Hu Mengying said that Bayer expects to see more cooperation and innovation at the industry level in 2024. In this process, both channel partners and third-party enterprises are very important partners for Bayer. Bayer hopes to leverage years of innovative research and development experience and brand recognition in the market to support channel partners to achieve continued business growth; At the same time, Bayer is also looking forward to establishing cooperation with more excellent agricultural production and service providers in China, and contributing to the vigorous development of China's agriculture. In the future, we will put down deeper roots and bear more splendid fruits in this fertile land of China.