Thailand

How Corn Heroes are made

Why

Corn is an important crop in Thailand, being used for both food and feed industries. Corn farmers located at upland areas and hilly areas of Northern Thailand have limited access to modern agricultural technology.

Wanting to bring these farmers innovative and effective solutions that maximize yield and minimize environmental impact we launched the Corn Heroes Program together with the Thai agricultural company Chia Tai. The program focuses holistically on fostering sustainable agriculture including farmer safety, higher productivity and better livelihood for the corn farmers. The goal is that Thailand’s corn farmers continue to be able to access innovation farming technology in order to grow high-quality corn in a safe and sustainable manner.

How

In collaboration with local corn cooperatives, the program included the introduction of a new crop protection solution that only needs to be applied once per season instead of twice, saving time and labor cost. BASF and Chia Tai collaborated on offering intensive trainings on Good Agricultural Practices including the safe and responsible use of crop protection products.  To generate awareness for the Corn Heroes Program, the team established an effective social media On the Chia Tai and BASF Facebook pages, laying the ground for broadly promoting safe and responsible use on social media.

Result

SDGs

Improving farmer livelihood with safely applied innovative solutions that cut time and labor cost while increasing yield.

Fostering safe and responsible use of crop protection products with customized trainings on Good agricultural practices.