Bayer CropScience Ltd
Overview
In India, Bayer's Crop Science division Bayer CropScience Ltd (NSE:BAYERCROP) works with nearly 20 million (2 crore) farmers. As market leaders in crop protection and with businesses in seeds, traits, biologicals, digital farming and environmental science, Bayer CropScience is committed to advancing Indian agriculture & promoting India as a key provider for agricultural solutions globally. The company's key crop segments in india include rice, corn, cotton, fruits and vegetables that are suited for various geographic & agri-climatic zones across the country.1
More than 500 million smallholder farmers feed the growing population in Asia, Africa, and South America. Owning small plots of land where they can typically only harvest one or two crops, smallholders often lack the resources needed to move from subistence farming to commerical farming. These farmers face unique challenges that require tailored solutions. At Bayer, its objective remains to empower more than a 100 million smallholder farmers in developing countries around the world by providing increased access to sustainable agricultural solutions.. The company aim to empower them through collaborative partnerships and innovative solutions that expand agricultural know-how to address their most challenging issues.
Products
Seeds and Traits
Through traditional and advanced breeding techniques, as well as research in biotechnology, we’re developing seeds and traits that provide farmers with new solutions. By making use of the natural genetic diversity within each crop family, we’re building crops that combat environmental challenges — like pests, disease, and drought — while providing more choice for consumers.2
Digital Tools
Using software tools that integrate data from farm equipment, satellites, field sensors, irrigation systems, drones, and other input sources, we’re empowering farmers to make better decisions through data science and predictive analytics. With detailed, real-time assessments of growing conditions and crop health, its digital tools support a sustainable, abundant harvest.
Crop Protection
The company's researchers are using data science each day to target, test, and select only the molecules with the most favorable toxicological profiles for its crop protection products, helping farmers defend their crops against weeds, disease, and harmful insects and fungi. New methods ensure farmers have the most effective and environmentally sustainable tools to grow enough while using fewer natural resources.
Environmental Science
The company's Environmental Science unit uses innovation and technology to sustainably safeguard and advance the health, hygiene, and safety of people all over the world. Through solutions specifically designed to care for its ecosystem — like disease-fighting vector control activities or professional pest and industrial vegetation management systems — we’re fostering healthy environments where people and communities can live, work, and play.
Industry Overview
Indian Agriculture
Indian agriculture has played a key role in the country’s growth story. India is the second-largest agricultural land holder in the world, with 157.35 Million hectares under cultivation at present. The country exhibits all 15 major climatic conditions observed worldwide and has 20 different agro-climatic regions, enabling farmers to cultivate a large variety of crops. Agriculture and allied industries continue to be a source of livelihood for about 58% of India’s population, making its growth imperative for the inclusive economic growth of the country.3
Foodgrain production in India has had an upward graph over the past few years. It is among the world’s top producers of crops such as wheat, rice, pulses, sugarcane, fruits, vegetables, and cotton. India has also emerged as a major agricultural exporter with Rs 2,700 Billion of agri-exports in 2019-20.
As per the Economic Survey 2019-20, despite the increasing crop production and its share in the country’s exports, the share of agriculture in total GVA has declined from 18.2% in 2014-15 to 16.5% in 2019-20 . This has been driven by rising urbanisation and shrinking arable land, limited or degraded natural resources, unfavourable impact of climate change on rainfall, fragmented land holdings owing to the majority of farmers being smallholders, and lack of access to latest technologies and awareness on good agricultural practices.
During 2019-20, India registered the overall seasonal (June-September) rainfall of 109% of its long period average (LPA) with Northwest, Central, South Peninsula, and Northeast India recording 98%, 129%, 116%, and 88% of respective LPA. The country experienced uneven rainfall distribution during the year, with 54% of the total area receiving normal rainfall, 30% receiving excess to large excess, and the remaining 15% receiving deficient rainfall. Monsoon was also delayed and extended during the year, prompting farmers to adjust their crop calendar.
Crop Protection
In 2018, the crop protection industry in India was valued at US$ 4.1 Billion and is expected to grow at 8.3% compounded growth rate to reach US$ 8.1 Billion by 2025. India ranks 4th among the largest agrochemical producers in the world, but the agrochemical consumption per hectare in India is quite low compared to other big agricultural markets such as the United States, Brazil and Argentina. In 2018, India’s per hectare pesticide usage stood at 0.6kg as compared to China’s 17kg, Japan’s 12.5kg, and the UK’s 2.8kg.
The lower utilisation is due to factors such as lack of adequate irrigation, depleting groundwater, fragmentation in land holdings resulting in low economies of scale, traditional farming, lack of knowledge about good agricultural practices and the available modern technologies. This has resulted in India’s lower crop yield per hectare as compared to the global averages. The Government of India, in a bid to bring the country’s yield at par with the global averages, is pushing for higher utilisation of agrochemicals. It is providing higher MSPs and better credit facilities to meet this objective. Besides this, low product penetration, higher farm incomes, and rising awareness about the benefits of agrochemicals would augur well for the crop protection industry, going ahead.
Consumption of crop protection products during the year was affected due to the irregular monsoon that in turn affected crop calendars, and higher raw material prices during the year. The coronavirus outbreak of December 2019 practically took over the world by March 2020, and the ensuing lockdown halted all regular business activities and exports, disrupted global agricultural and food supply chains, and logistics within the country. This further hindered agrochemicals offtake in the fourth quarter of 2019-20.
Seeds
The Indian seed market has experienced good growth in the past decade, owing to conducive policy reforms, government support, and active participation of both public and private sectors promoting higher use of hybrid seeds. The industry is likely to continue along a healthy growth trajectory.
The Indian seed market, valued at US$ 4.1 Billion in 2018, is estimated to become a US$ 9.1 Billion industry by 2024, indicating a healthy compounded growth rate of 14.2%.
Environmental Science
The Environmental Science unit of Bayer CropScience Limited focusses on improving public health, and it currently operates in two business areas in India: Vector Control and Professional Pest Management (PPM), both of which showed a good growth trend in 2019-20. Vector-borne diseases such as dengue, malaria, zika, and chikungunya continued to affect communities across India, and there is an extensive need for products that can control the vector carriers.
Globally, Bayer is a signatory to the ZERO-by-40 declaration to eliminate malaria from the planet by 2040, in partnership with the Innovative Vector Control Consortium and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The Company expects that public-private partnerships will be important also in the context of India’s efforts to eliminate malaria and control dengue and other vectorborne diseases.
In the PPM segment, termite control, which is one of the fastest growing segments, saw an uptick with the slow increase in pre-construction activity. In the long term, the PPM business has good potential for growth in both commercial and residential pest control segments.
Financial Overview
Financial Performance
In 2019-20, BCSL registered Revenue from Operations of Rs 36,094 Million, compared to Rs 31,673 Million in the previous year. Profit Before Exceptional Items and Tax stood at Rs 7,133 Million, compared to Rs 4,800 Million in the previous year. The results for the financial year ended March 31, 2019, include results of erstwhile Monsanto India Limited from June 7, 2018 (the date on which Monsanto Company, USA, was acquired by Bayer AG), and are therefore not comparable.
Integration of Monsanto India Limited with Bayer CropScience Limited
On September 13, 2019, the National Company Law Tribunal approved the merger of Monsanto India Limited into Bayer CropScience Limited. After the merger, Monsanto products are now a part of BCSL’s product portfolio and continue to be marketed under their earlier brand names.
The integration brings together two highly complementary businesses, creating an innovation engine for Indian agriculture. Indian farmers can benefit from BCSL’s innovative crop protection products and Monsanto’s expertise in seeds and traits and digital farming applications. It has also brought together a vast talent pool of experienced employees from both organisations who are working closely with farmers to enhance crop yields, increase farm incomes, and drive sustainable agriculture.
Crop Protection
In 2019-20, the Company successfully launched one new product in Crop Protection. The new addition, Momiji, is a selective, pre-emergence herbicide for weed management in wheat. Momiji belongs to a new class of chemistry with a different mode of action, has outstanding residual activity, providing seasonlong weed control and can even work on resistant Phalaris (grass).
Seeds & Traits
The company's seeds & traits business benefited out of a stronger sales force successfully placing more Dekalb corn seeds already in the first joint months of operating as one company. This, together with generally better weather conditions during Rabi, led to successful placements and significantly improved sellout, leading to low levels of returns.
In 2019-20, the Company successfully launched four new products in hybrid seeds.
Environmental Science
In 2019-20, the ES unit maintained its position as the market leader in the areas of Vector Control and PPM. The ES business increased sales by 11.9% in comparison with the previous year and recorded the highest revenue for the ES business in 13 years. All segments showed strong growth due to clear operational focus on individual business areas. The Company successfully registered a label extension for Temprid to treat bedbugs in addition to cockroaches.
Opportunities and Outlook
India’s agricultural yield stands far lower as compared to global averages. The annual availability of food grains per capita in 2018 stood at 180.3kg, marginally higher than 169.8kg in 2015. The yield per hectare needs to increase significantly, considering the rising population and declining arable land in India. Apart from the unfavorable impact of extreme weather events, the lower yield is a result of the low penetration of high-yielding hybrid seeds and inefficient use of agrochemicals. This under-penetration of the market presents a significant opportunity for the Company’s Crop Protection and Hybrid Seeds business.
Innovation in seeds and crop protection can go a long way in addressing the productivity problems affecting Indian agriculture. It will also help farmers get good commodity prices, encouraging them to spend on qualitative inputs for achieving higher yields. BCSL with its product offerings, distribution reach and strong network of more than 4,500 field officers is wellpositioned to support Indian farmers.
Even though India ranks 5th in the global seed market, the country’s adoption of high-quality hybrid seeds continues to be extremely low at 6%. Hybrid seeds can adapt to low rainfall and poor soil conditions, and still result in significantly higher farm yield. The government’s efforts to promote higher use of highquality seeds and raise farmers’ income will bode well for the industry’s growth.
Strengthening supply and logistics infrastructure
The absence of a proper storage and processing infrastructure has prevented Indian farmers from getting the best prices for their produce. There is an urgent need to establish efficient farm-to-fork supply chains through public-private partnerships. Apart from that, deploying data analytics to forecast global production trends accurately will enable farmers to hedge their risk by diversifying crop production. These measures would ensure steady and sufficient supply of diverse crops and would protect both consumers and farmers from price fluctuations.
Increasing focus on water conservation
India’s water consumption per unit of crop yield stands drastically higher at 2 to 4 times compared to other emerging nations such as China and Brazil. The Government of India, in a bid to improve water consumption efficiency, is promoting higher adoption of better irrigation technologies such as sprinkler and drip and other micro-irrigation techniques.
While several modern agricultural technologies already exist and there are many innovations being researched, BCSL is working on capacity building for smallholder farmers on existing technologies. A good example of an existing technology that can significantly contribute to water conservation is hybrid seeds. But first, smallholder farmers need access to hybrid seeds. Under traditional farming, a kilo of rice requires 3,000 to 5,000 litres of water. In comparison, short duration rice hybrids can provide high yields using less water. Hybrid seeds also come with pest, disease and drought tolerance.
Recent developments
November 09, 2020 Bayer CropScience Limited reports Q2 results for FY 2020-21. 4
Bayer CropScience Limited announced its unaudited results for the quarter (Q2) and half year ended (H1) September 30, 2020.
For Q2 ended September 30, 2020, Bayer CropScience Limited (BCSL) registered Revenue from Operations of ₹13,816 million as compared to ₹13,463 million in the corresponding period of FY 2019-20. Profit Before Exceptional Items and Tax stood at ₹2,960 million, compared to ₹2,943 million in the corresponding period of the previous financial year.
For the H1 ended September 30, 2020, BCSL reported Revenue from Operations of ₹26,094 million compared to ₹22,967 million for the corresponding period in FY 2019-20. Profit Before Exceptional Items and Tax for the H1 ended September 30, 2020 stood at ₹6,098 million, compared to ₹4,978 million for the corresponding period in FY 2019-20.
Speaking about the financial results, D. Narain, CEO & Managing Director of Bayer CropScience Limited, said, “Building on the strong growth momentum in Q1 with early season demand and subsequent sales of its products, the company saw continuing momentum with year-to-date revenue growth of 14% in H1 and 3% in Q2. Growth in Q2 was driven by herbicides and fungicides in key crops such as corn, rice and vegetables. Post integration, the company implemented a unified distribution approach for its hybrid corn seeds. Cotton was affected due to excessive rainfall across India, limiting insecticide growth. The company also delivered significant liquidation growth and maintained a healthy channel situation.”
Sharing an outlook for the rest of the year, D. Narain said, “While post monsoon non-seasonal rain caused crop damages in a few key markets, it also led to an increase in water reservoir levels across the country. Bayer CropScience is optimistic that good water availability will help it achieve a favorable Rabi season. The company will continue to work closely with farmers to ensure crop productivity and farm profitability during the current challenging Covid-19 situation and beyond.”