Bayer upbeat about China's agricultural growth prospects

With China's vast arable land and huge population, German life sciences company Bayer is upbeat about the country's agriculture sector and will continue to invest in the country.

In October, a Bayer Forward Farm in Lishu county, Siping, Northeast China's Jilin province welcomed the harvest season. The farm, which plants corn in black soil — a typical type of soil in the region — reported a record high yield per mu of 1,120 kilograms.

Bayer ForwardFarming is a global sustainable agricultural project initiated by the company. The project adopts the concept of regenerative agriculture, which, with the help of technology, raises the production efficiency of crops while restoring the ecology of the farmland.

Currently, there are around 20 Bayer ForwardFarming projects worldwide, among which China is home to three — apart from the one in Jilin, there are also ones in Shanghai and Beijing, cultivating vegetables and rice, respectively.

"Bayer ForwardFarming was launched in China in 2021. Seeing great opportunities in China's sustainable agriculture in the future, we are more than willing to expand local collaboration, and explore more sustainable practices to demonstrate and scale up regenerative agriculture in China through Bayer Forward-Farming projects," said Li Peixu, lead of Bayer ForwardFarming in China.

Guo Jingping, director of the business development unit of Bayer Crop Science, said: "We promote regenerative agriculture in China so as to turn the traditional consuming-type plantation mode into a process of actively restoring land and enhancing ecological balance. In China, through Bayer Forward-Farming, we join multiple forces together to build regenerative agriculture with Chinese characteristics."

Under the context of the country giving great impetus to sustainable transformation, developing green, low-carbon agriculture and promoting the transformation of production to resource-saving through environmentally friendly practices has become an important direction, industry experts said.

Li Baoguo, professor at the College of Land Science and Technology of China Agricultural University and head of the Jilin Lishu Lab under CAU, said that regenerative agriculture is resource-saving in nature. The regenerative agriculture mode requires the guidance of the government, as well as cooperation between corporations. On the basis of respecting nature, the concept introduces advanced seeds and plant-saving technology, together with scientific management, to raise farmers' cultivation efficiency.

Data from the State Council showed that by the end of 2024, China's agricultural acreage totaled 1.94 billion mu (129 million hectares), growing by 28 million mu over the level in 2020.

zhengyiran@chinadaily.com.cn