Bayer to scale up 'Sahbhaagi' programme and create opportunities for rural entrepreneurs

New Delhi: German agrochemicals major Bayer on Tuesday announced its plans to scale up its 'Sahbhaagi' programme to empower rural women and youth with an aim to develop a comprehensive agricultural ecosystem.

Launched in 2009, the 'Bayer Sahbhaagi Program', creates unique opportunities for rural entrepreneurs to partner with Bayer, explore alternate demand generation routes and enhance Bayer's reach to farmers.

Anyone above 18 years with knowledge of agriculture and access to a smartphone is eligible to become a Sahbhaagi.

According to Bayer, Sahbhaagi is a rural micro-entrepreneurship development model which empowers farmers, women and rural youth to become an advisor and recommend right solutions to smallholder growers.

"The scale-up of the Sahbhaagi programme will include adding more Sahbhaagi partners to create a strong network of outreach and engagement with farmers across India." The programme will be further fuelled by the adoption of smartphones and evolving digital technologies that have created new touchpoints with farmers.

The Sahbhaagis have been trained and equipped to recommend the right solutions to smallholder farmers as per local farm conditions. The smallholder growers get access to Bayer products digitally with the assistance of the Sahbhaagi, the company said in a statement.

"Bayer will continue to work closely with these Sahbhaagis to create a sustainable ecosystem in their villages, adopting the latest agricultural and farming practices, learning the technical know-how of Bayer products and offering customised crop and product advisory to farmers," said Simon-Thorsten Wiebusch, Country Divisional Head - Crop Science Division of Bayer for India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Currently, the programme is active in 24 states across more than 470 districts and 1,980 sub-districts. Over 4,000 rural women and youth are part of this programme at present.