www.business-review.eu Business Review | October May 20162021
COVER INTERVIEW STORY 23 14
Making a commitment to sustainable agriculture Boualem Saidi, Country Group Head for Romania, Bulgaria, and Moldova at Bayer Crop Science, sat down with Business Review to talk about the importance of sustainability in agriculture and tell us why it is no longer a matter of choice, but both a need and a responsibility. By Anda Sebesi changes from both an operational and a legislative perspective. To go into more detail,
What is sustainability in agriculture? What is Bayer’s strategy for sustainability in this field?
more favourable environmental profiles can
one key issue for us the legal framework on
all reduce water, labour or energy usage.
manufacturing, marketing, and use of plant
Sustainable agriculture includes all the tools
pests, and weeds in agriculture and forestry,
tivity and grow safe, healthy, and affordable
What is the role of digital technology in sustainable agriculture and what can you tell us about precision agriculture?
food, all while preserving natural resources.
Precision and digital farming help farmers
is adapting legislation to accommodate
In short, it’s a way to produce more with less!
work in a smarter manner by combining their
the use of drones to spray crop protection
In line with the Sustainable Development
expertise and knowledge of their land with
products.
Goals of the United Nations and the Paris
modern, digitally-enabled tools that collect
Agreement, Bayer’s sustainability commit-
and organise massive data, providing them
ments are designed to address the challenges
with actionable insights that allow for better
of climate change, biodiversity loss, and food
decision-making. Bayer is introducing digital
Are local agribusinesses and seed or PPP manufacturers prepared to embrace sustainable business practices?
security to create a better tomorrow for our
tools – such as Climate FieldView – that
Definitely! Our industry is ready to embrace
society and our planet. Our ambition is to
provide farmers with real-time agronomic
sustainability. It has already embarked on
achieve a balance between production and
advice, resulting in both income generation
this journey and, in my opinion, it is no
protection – in a nutshell, how do we feed the
and safer food through sustainable farming
longer a question of choice; it is a need and
world without starving the planet?
practices.
a responsibility. We all need to contribute
and practices farmers use to improve produc-
protection products to control diseases, which should be updated so as to be aligned with European legislation. Another example
and support farmers with agronomical solutions that help them remain competitive,
world’s biggest challenges. More specifically,
Do we need to update our environmental legislation in order to achieve a better level of sustainability for Romanian agriculture? What are some key ideas and solutions in this area?
it is not only about reducing the climate im-
I believe it is of the utmost importance to
sustainability is at the core of our strategy
pact of farming that, but also about enhanc-
have national legislation that is consistent
and our long-term success as a company lies
ing farms’ immense contribution to carbon
with European policies. The new Common
in providing farmers with the best possible
sequestration. Precision farming, innovative
Agricultural Policy and the Green Deal are
tools and solutions to help them obtain
hybrid seeds that are tolerant to drought and
expected to bring changes to our sector, and
better harvests using less water, land, and
pests, and new crop protection products with
we need to be prepared to embrace those
energy.
What are the key areas where agriculture could contribute to sustainability within the bigger picture? Agriculture is part of the solution to the
while making sure that our natural resources are preserved for future generations. Our industry is one of the most innovative and it integrates a lot of technology. At Bayer,
