I met Lykele vanderBroek, Global COO, Bayer CropScience, during the 2012 Ag Issues Forum. He was on the welcoming committee to all the media who attended this event. When it was my turn for an interview with him I asked him what take away message he wanted us to have. He says that global trends like increasing population, higher affordable income, dietary shifts and others, contrasted with our inability to add much more farmland, make it important to increase productivity both in terms of quantity as well as quality. Lykele believes we can only increase productivity through innovation and that it should be done in a sustainable way so we can continue to do so in the future. He thinks that innovation needs to be centered around the grower keeping in mind what his customers want.
When it comes to how Bayer CropScience is creating customer solutions to the issues created by these trends he points to their investment in research and development of new products. They also want their products to be used in a responsible way. An example of how they encourage this is with their Respect the Rotation Initiative.
You can listen to my interview with Lekela here: Interview with Lykele vanderBroek