Bayer CropScience Ltd.
Sales (2007-2008) =Rs.1200 crores. (rounded off)
Net profit after tax =Rs.50 crores. (rounded off)
CSR Budget =Not available
Karmayog 2008 CSR Rating: 2/5
CSR activities:
As a global innovation and market leader in its industry, Bayer CropScience believes that its technological and commercial expertise entails a duty to contribute to Sustainable Development. In awareness of our responsibility as a corporate citizen, we define economy, ecology and social commitment as objectives of equal rank.
Producing good quality and abundant food
Food production is still ahead of expected population growth, but changes in dietary habits fostered by economic development are boosting the demand for high value food products, such as meat, fruits and vegetables.
We contribute to producing good quality and abundant food by:
Providing solutions that improve crop health and productivity while protecting environmental health
Developing enhanced crop varieties with improved quality traits, including increased nutritional value
Providing technical support and training to farming communities within the framework of Integrated
Crop Management (ICM)
Cooperating with stakeholders in the food chain to enhance the value and quality of food
Integrating food-safety aspects into R&D activities
Helping avoid microbiological contaminants issues, such as mycotoxins through technology provision
Managing crop losses and developing enhanced varieties
Annual global crop losses avoided by the use of crop protection products are estimated to be as much as 30 � 40% at a global level. R & D towards enhanced varieties will also contribute to higher yields and improved quality produce, including increased nutritional value. Therefore, these technologies are essential to secure the supply of high quality and abundant food.
Rural Development and Sustainable Livelihood
Healthy crops and enhanced seeds contribute to increased productivity and this, in turn, supports the viability of farms. In emerging economies, farm viability often equates with achieving food self-sufficiency. Safeguarding the crop yield also results in more income generation and thus improves the rural livelihood as farmers are able to buy goods they otherwise couldn�t afford. With regard to some crop health problems, the loss of food security and family income can be due to just one single insect or fungus that causes total crop loss � the rice brown plant hopper or the potato blight are just two known examples. Through our technologies we contribute many potential solutions, but our real impact is much broader because our capacity-building activities enhance the overall knowledge of farmers and thus enable them to help themselves in the longer term.
Challenges
Measuring the impacts of our technologies on rural development and livelihood is a difficult task, due to the constantly changing socio-economic environments, but it remains something we wish to help achieve. We are, therefore, cooperating in a multi-stakeholder initiative called the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development and aiming to provide the necessary yardsticks.
Water conservation and protection
Fresh water is one of the world�s most precious resources. Agriculture accounts for around 70% of all water use, so predicted water shortages in agriculture have been identified as likely to be the single most significant constraint on crop production over the next 50 years, if current trends continue. Improved agricultural water management must be given centre stage.
Eradication of Child Labour
In many cotton fields in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, hybrid seed is being produced for a subsidiary of Bayer CropScience. Boys and girls used to work in these fields too. The company now buys seed only from those suppliers who agree not to use child labor. In return, the producers are paid more money
�Positive encouragement is of course much more important to us than penalties,� says Proagro manager Suhas Joshi. All farmers who can show that they do not employ children therefore receive a bonus: in the current cultivation period, they are receiving 7.5 percent on top of the usual price. For farmer Melagiri Narasanna, this was reason enough to stop employing children completely this year. �Otherwise I will not get a bonus,� he says. He would also like a small loan, like his friend Raj. A Bayer guarantee saved him from having to go to the local money lender with his extortionate 20 percent interest rates.
But what is just as important for the project managers as the financial incentive is for everyone involved to be aware of how harmful child labor is. No easy task in a country so poor that many families are forced to resort to any means of earning money. Says company spokeswoman Ananda: �This is why it is so incredibly important for us also to speak to the parents in particular. They must understand what they are depriving their children of if they do not let them go to school, namely the prospect of a life worth living.�
By the start of 2006, more than 700 children had attended Creative Learning Centers, with centers set up by Bayer CropScience accounting for 600 of them. Almost all went on to attend a state school. Each name is painstakingly recorded on a list, and if someone stops coming to lessons, he and his parents are immediately contacted. �This is becoming increasingly unnecessary, however,� says project manager Reddy. �Now everyone actually knows how important education is.�
It is 3 p.m. and school is out in the Armagidda Creative Learning Center. Little Viresh is in no hurry. Full of dedication, he carries on painting a picture of his family: five laughing matchstick people. That morning, the teacher had said to him: �Today, we all have reason to be happy.� The observers returned from their latest inspection tour with the news that there are no more children working in Proagro fields. And that really is a reason to celebrate � in Armagidda, in Maldakal, and in all the other little villages where children can be children again. And not just cheap labor.
The Naandi Foundation is a non-profit organization founded in 1989 in India. The name comes from Sanskrit and means �new start.� Naandi has set itself the objective of fighting hunger, providing access to clean water, enabling children to have an education, and creating homes for the poor.
The establishment of �Creative Learning Centers� is part of a cooperation agreement between Proagro and Naandi. It also incorporates the objective of working together through motivational campaigns to achieve a change in the attitudes of parents, children and all members of the village community as regards child labor. Naandi has a great deal of experience with school projects and works closely with the government and the Ministry of Education
Working on behalf of a better life
Bayer maintains business activities in about 150 countries. The company sees itself as a good corporate citizen in every country in which it is present, and as such aims to help solve social problems and overcome global challenges. In roughly 300 different projects, we provide funding and make available our economic and technological know-how, while our employees for their part display tremendous commitment. Such social activities have been a key element of Bayer’s corporate policy for more than a century, and play an essential role in the company’s success.
With all our initiatives, we strive to improve people’s future perspectives. For example, we support both schoolchildren and talented scientists. We assist young environmentalists around the world and aim to ease social hardship and safeguard health care in less affluent countries too. We also promote sports and culture as important and meaningful leisure pursuits that help bring people together.
Bayer is the first private-sector partner to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), helping to win over young people around the world to the cause of environmental protection. Together with National Geographic, we have established the Global Exploration Fund, which supports innovative research aimed at overcoming the global challenge of providing the world’s population with sufficient drinking water. We are also testing the efficacy of a substance that has proven effective in other applications with the goal of making a new tuberculosis drug available in developing countries at affordable prices. With these and numerous other initiatives, the Bayer Group practices Corporate Social Responsibility. We are working to improve people’s lives � in keeping with our mission statement �Bayer: Science For A Better Life.�
Education
Chemistry Lab Renovation at a local school in Thane
Bayer sponsored the entire renovation of the lab, including furniture, equipment, lab aprons, first- aid kit and fire extinguisher
School uniforms given to under privileged children – Bayer provided uniforms to children of a school near the Thane plant
School books to children
– Thane: Books given to students with the �best improvment in grades�
– Ankleshwar: Books given to all primary and secondary grade students
Student visits to plant � Thane and Ankleshwar
To better understand processes as well as Company�s commitment to environment protection
Site Neighbourhood
Bayer�s efforts in the field of social responsibility are intended to benefit the society. In line with this mission, the residents living around the vicinity of our plant in Thane were invited to view the facility and its operations. This helped them understand the emphasis laid by Bayer on Health, Safety, Environment and Quality standards. Some other activities we have undertaken are:
� Hobby class program for women near Thane plant
Bayer sponsored training in various income generating activities imparted to women to make them self-reliant
� Transport provided for handicapped children of local school in Thane
Installation of more than 700 �Spring Posts� in Thane & Mumbai to enhance safety of pedestrians and to reduce risk of road accidents
Bayer offers spare capacity of incineration
Bayer CropScience Limited has a state-of-art Incinerator at its works at Thane, Maharashtra. The company is highly committed to continual improvement in Health, Safety and Environmental Protection and leads the Responsible Care movement of the Chemical Industry.
Bayer CropScience Limited is certified for ISO 14001 by DNV since December 1999. As an ongoing effort, Bayer has been successful in reducing generation of hazardous waste and therefore has a spare capacity for incineration. Bayer is authorized by Maharashtra Pollution Control Board to incinerate the hazardous waste from other registered waste generators. In the common endeavor to abate the industrial pollution, Bayer would like to offer the spare capacity to the generators of hazardous waste to help incinerate responsibly, economically and in accordance with the environment regulations
Young Environmental Envoy Program
As the first private-sector partner to UNEP in the area of youth and the environment, Bayer organizes and promotes a number of specific projects which aim to improve knowledge about the environment among young people and support them in their environmental commitment. Building on their many years of co-operation in the Asia Pacific region, Bayer and UNEP decided in June 2004 to put their partnership on a contractual basis and expand it globally. Focal points of this cooperation are the regions Asia, Latin America, Africa and Central and Eastern Europe.
One of the projects in partnership with UNEP is the Bayer Young Environmental Envoy Programme (BYEEP), which was initiated in Thailand in 1995. Over the years, it has expanded to various countries. We launched the BYEEP in India in 2002.
The programme seeks to educate youth on the global effort to save and protect the environment, as we appreciate the fact that in order to conserve our habitat, we need the cooperation and understanding of young students
Two students are selected each year to represent India at Bayer AG, Leverkusen (Germany). The selection process entails writing an essay on projects that the students have undertaken based on environment protection and sustainable development. In Germany. they have the opportunity to interact with other students from various countries across the globe. The study tour is sponsored by Bayer, and the students can experience first hand, how environmental protection is practiced by the company, people and government in industrialized countries.
Source: http://www.bayercropscience.com/BCSWeb/CropProtection.nsf/id/EN_Sustainability_Commitment
Contact Information:
Bayer Cropscience Ltd.
Bayer House, Central Ave.,
Hiranandani Gardens Powai, Mumbai
Maharastra-400076
Phone No. : 22-25700300
Fax :22-2570 0389
Email mailto:SustAg@bayercropscience.com?cc=info@karmayog.org
Website :http://www.bayergroupindia.com/
Industry Sector: Pesticides/ Agrochemicals- Multinational
Products / Services: Crop Protection Business
Other locations of factories / offices: Bayer sites in Thane, Himatnagar and Ankleshwar.
Previous year�s CSR activities & rating:
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