Agriculture

Smart Stewardship At A Glance

Supporting farmers and professional applicators to use our products safely. We do this by providing access to information, tools and services that are tailored to every farmer’s or applicator's daily work. Our focus is on maximizing the benefits and minimizing the risks associated with the use of crop protection and pest control products.

What is stewardship?

Stewardship in the context of crop protection and pest control is the responsible and ethical management of products along their life cycle. Smart Stewardship means harnessing digital tools and innovative technologies for enhanced product stewardship, aiming to safeguard farmers, operators, the environment and public health.

What targets did we set for ourselves?

What impacts do we aim for?

Safety of farmers

Protect our planet

What is our approach?

To protect people’s health and our environment, we provide access to information, services and tools, such as personal protective equipment (PPE), customized trainings and e-learnings, digital decision-support tools, and high-tech solutions such as spray drones or Closed Transfer System (CTS).

We believe partnership is key to effectively develop and implement best practices. It is also essential for making stewardship impactful on the ground, as credibility, behavioral change, and scale-up can only be achieved through a collaborative approach. Together with farmers and customers, business partners along the agricultural value chain, non-governmental organizations, local advisory services and governments, and industry associations (CropLife International), BASF is engaged to help farmers grow more healthy, high quality food in a responsible way.

We are working to establish a comprehensive concept through which we can deliver the means and knowledge fostering safe use in ways that are mindful of geographic and socioeconomic context.

This is where we stand now

We are bringing to the market a range of tools to progress towards our target of striving for zero incidents related to use of our products; more are in the pipeline.
We are rolling out context-specific high-tech solutions, such as the easyconnect^® Closed Transfer System in Europe and drone technology in Latin America and Southeastern Asia.
We are also building on established elements of our product stewardship with innovative approaches to enhance effectiveness and scale up: the Global Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) Initiative is an example of this.

Stewardship is about responsibility and care – for human health and for the environment - something that we, at BASF, take very seriously. Our stewardship initiatives are integrated into our business activities around the world to provide customized regional programs, considering local conditions and the specific needs of farmers, applicators, and communities. This includes our commitment to Integrated Pest Management (IPM) – an economically viable, environmentally sound and socially acceptable approach to crop protection, considering chemical interventions when the need is indicated, and no other effective options are available. In our smart stewardship activities, we are especially harnessing the power of digital and high-tech solutions to enable the responsible use of our products by our customers.

We invite you to further explore our three key topics within Smart Stewardship:

Key Stewardship Topics

According to predictions made by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), farmers will have to sustainably generate around 50 percent more yield by 2050 in or-der to feed the global population. [Reproduction for press purposes free of charge with credit “Picture: Bosch”]

Human Health

Protecting the health of farmers, rural communities and consumers is of utmost importance for us.

Scenic aerial view of the Seine river and green fields in French countryside. Val d'Oise department, Ile-de-France, Northern France; Shutterstock ID 1898268388; purchase_order: 1086744798; job: Annegret Liebscht; client: APB/KS; other: 20782208

Environment

A healthy ecosystem is the foundation for sustainable agriculture.

Precision farming. Farmer hands hold tablet using online data management software, differential fertilizer application maps. Agronomist works with touch screen to control, analyse agriculture business; Shutterstock ID 1776032321; purchase_order: 1086744798; job: Annegret Liebscht; client: APB/KS; other: 20782208

Digital/High Tech Solutions

Modern technologies enable smart risk management.