"The second green revolution"

In the year 2025 we are likely to be sharing our planet Earth with some eight billion other people. They all hope to have enough to eat.

Safeguarding food for a growing world population

Securing the world's food supply is one of the greatest challenges of our time. And the agricultural sector faces major challenges here, as global food reserves have already fallen to the lowest level in thirty years. But increasing the amount of land used to produce food is scarcely an option. Demand is rising for food, animal feed and plants to produce biofuels. The effects of climate change are another complicating factor. Other important issues are the sharp rise in prices of key agricultural raw materials and the appearance of conflicts over distribution in emerging and developing countries. All these factors mean that international research and development policies will have to focus more closely on agriculture. This is the only way of securing food supplies in the future.


Challenges of the new agriculture: increase farm yields throughout the world.
Investment in technology, innovation and farm infrastructure will have to be stepped up to this end: "We need intensive research into agriculture so that we can meet the challenges of food production and also make the best possible use of our arable resources. What we need is nothing less than a second green revolution", commented Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Friedrich Ber-schauer, Chairman of the Board of Bayer CropScience AG.

A leading force for innovation in the agricultural sector, Bayer CropScience is taking on the challenges of the new agriculture and is developing new crop protection, plant breeding and plant biotechnology solutions to help increase farm yields throughout the world.


Researchers of Bayer CropScience discuss the results of tests against pest insects on plants.

Meeting global needs

Targeted integrated management of all aspects of modern agriculture - irrigation, fertiliser use, crop protection and innovative seed technologies - is the only way of achieving a significant boost in global yields. Bayer CropScience, which has the largest research section in the industry, will therefore continue to focus its innovation efforts on novel crop protection products with new mechanisms of action. It will as a result be able to help farmers all over the world control insects, weeds and micro-organisms.

Bayer CropScience is also working to develop new generations of crops such as rapeseed, cotton, rice and maize that are more stress-tolerant and produce higher yields. The role of biotechnology will also become more important, as it helps to make crop plants more resistant to stress caused by climatic and environmental conditions.


(source:http://www.bayercropscience.com)