Bayer's Singapore R&D lab helps Asian farmers

ALTHOUGH Singapore is not a rice growing country, pioneering research by a leading German chemicals company on the major Asian crop is being done here and it is benefiting millions of farmers in the Asia-Pacific region.

Bayer, which is a global enterprise with core competencies in the life science fields of health care and nutrition, has a crop science seeds laboratory in Singapore as part of its R&D setup.

"Aligned with Bayer's vision: 'Health for all, Hunger for none', the focus of Bayer's Crop Science Seeds laboratory contributes to our goal of developing new crop hybrids that enable smallholder farmers in the Asia Pacific region to manage the challenge of growing enough food sustainably while feeding a growing population as climate change makes growing crops increasingly more difficult," says Jens Hartmann, the Singapore-based head of Region APAC for the Crop Science Division of Bayer.

Bayer's Singapore seeds laboratory, set up in 2008, is the regional hub for Asia Pacific in the company's global network of crop science research and development (R&D) centres as a site dedicated to agriculture.

"R&D can help increase the productivity, sustainability and value of crops for farmers and consumers through continuous improvements in yield, climate resilience and disease and pest protection. The Singapore seeds lab team uses cutting edge genetics and data science to tackle these challenges and positively impacts smallholder farmer lives and livelihoods every day," says Mr Hartmann.

The seeds lab helps small farmers simplify their production activities and increase their yield and yield security by developing hybrid seeds with new features that withstand droughts, floods, pests and diseases. Giving crops the armour to thrive in difficult climates means the lab is helping farmers to develop their businesses and to grow more food for their communities.

BT in your inbox

Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.

Sign Up

Sign Up

One example is the hybrid rice seed variety of Arize, which was bred with resistance against brown plant hopper insects and bacterial leaf blight disease, both of which cause devastating crop losses.

"So far, around 1.7 million smallholder farmers have benefited from our pioneering work on hybrid rice. When you consider that around 3.2 billion people worldwide depend on the grain for more than a fifth of their daily calories, the value of hybrid rice and similar advances through innovative R&D at Bayer becomes clear. Importantly, this research and development into rice helps us contribute to the United Nations Zero Hunger Challenge, which aims to eliminate all forms of malnutrition by 2030," says Mr Hartmann.

The seeds lab here with a headcount of eight is one of Bayer's nine laboratory-based innovation centres on crop science. The scientists' tasks include genetic screening for innovative agronomic and quality traits that naturally occur in plants and integrating them into new crop hybrids through plant breeding.

In an interesting development, Bayer teamed up with Temasek in August to form a new company, Unfold, which will focus on innovation in vegetable varieties with the goal of lifting vertical farming to the next level of quality, efficiency and sustainability.

While most startups in the vertical farming market are focusing on the development of more efficient infrastructure, Unfold plans to unlock the genetic potential of vertical farming. Using seed genetics from vegetable crops, Unfold will focus on developing new seed varieties coupled with agronomic advice tailored for the indoor environment of vertical farms.

Singapore is Bayer's Asia Pacific headquarters for the pharmaceuticals, crop science and consumer health divisions. Its Asean country group platform is also based here. The company has almost 400 employees here, representing a diverse group of both local and international talent.

In fiscal 2019, Bayer employed around 104,000 people worldwide and had sales of 43.5 billion euros (S$70 billion). It invested 5.3 billion euros in R&D.