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Bayer has announced plan to scale up its Sahbhaagi program to empower rural women and youth developing a comprehensive agricultural ecosystem. Launched in 2019, the program has over 4,000 Sahbhaagis across India. This initiative creates unique opportunities for rural entrepreneurs to partner with the company, explore alternate demand generation routes and enhance Bayer’s reach to farmers.
Sahbhaagi is a rural micro-entrepreneurship development model empowering farmers, women and rural youth to become an advisor and recommend right solutions to smallholder growers, the company said. The scale-up of the Sahbhaagi program will include adding more partners to create a strong network of outreach and engagement with farmers across India, and anyone above 18 with knowledge of agriculture and access to a smartphone are eligible enlist.
Simon-Thorsten Wiebusch, Country Divisional Head - Crop Science Division of Bayer for India, Bangladesh & Sri Lanka said, “In our broad effort to transform agricultural practices for the benefit of local communities, we provide opportunities for micro-entrepreneurs to encourage sustainable and responsible farming and support rural productivity. Bayer will continue to work closely with these Sahbhaagis creating a sustainable ecosystem, adopting the latest agricultural and farming practices, learning the technical know-how of Bayer products and offering customised crop and product advisory to farmers.”
In addition to enrolling young Agri-entrepreneurs, Bayer understands the major role women play in shaping their families and the agriculture value chain. Their role as influencers in buying decisions makes them the perfect partners and would 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 farmers as per local farm conditions. The smallholder growers get access to Bayer products digitally with the assistance of the Sahbhaagi. This program is currently active in 24 states, across 470 districts and 1,980 sub-districts, Bayer said in a statement.
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