Bayer CropScience Helps Growers CARE for Crops and Bees

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., April 21, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- With Earth Day just around the corner and planting season underway, Bayer CropScience today announced the continuation of its CARE Program. CARE is aimed at supporting the ongoing collaboration between growers and beekeepers and the critical role they both play in feeding a growing planet and being good stewards of the environment. In the U.S., more than $15 billion dollars worth of crops are pollinated by bees each year. Growers – and bees – are increasingly tasked to produce more food as our world population grows. The CARE program, now in its third year, reflects Bayer's ongoing commitment to product stewardship, protecting natural resources, enhancing agricultural sustainability and promoting partnerships between growers and beekeepers, which are all needed to feed a projected 9 billion people by 2050.

With an easy-to-remember acronym, the CARE Program encourages growers to:

• Communicate planting activities to neighboring beekeepers when practical and be aware of beehives adjacent to the planting area;
• Be Aware of wind speed and direction during planting, particularly in areas with flowering crops;
• Reduce risk to pollinators by using Fluency Agent, a new planter seed lubricant for corn and soybeans; and
• Ensure seed is planted correctly. To help protect the environment, clean planters and seed boxes in a way to minimize dust release and ensure treated seed is planted at the proper depth.

"Growers are among the greatest stewards of our environment and Bayer CropScience supports them as they take CARE to produce the food, fuel and fiber needed for our growing world population," said Kevin Adam, SeedGrowth strategic business lead at Bayer CropScience. "It's our mission to help our fields and communities thrive in order to meet this challenge, and bees play a vital role in helping farmers establish a healthy harvest in a sustainable manner."

The program focuses on key steps to take while planting treated seeds to sustain the environment and maximize the health of crops. CARE also champions the important relationship between growers and local beekeepers, encouraging both to maintain open channels of communication to continue to protect both crops and pollinators.

By following the label use instructions, adopting best practices for applying seed treatments, and ensuring proper product storage and disposal, growers can minimize their impact on the environment and help preserve beneficial insects, continuing their essential role as stewards for a more productive and healthier world.

The CARE Program is just one component of the overall investment Bayer CropScience makes as part of its responsibility and commitment to sustainability, product innovation, research and education. Additional efforts include:

• Developing groundbreaking crop protection products, such as ILeVO^® and Poncho®/VOTiVO^® seed treatments and Sivanto™ insecticide;
• Bayer Bee Care Program devoted to honey bee research, education and outreach to promote the health of these vital components to the agriculture system, including the newest Feed a Bee initiative to increase forage areas throughout the nation. Bayer has invested more than $12 million in bee health in the past year alone;
• Fluency Agent, a planter seed lubricant that reduces dust with planting treated corn and soybean seeds, helping minimize potential risk of exposure to foraging honey bees and other pollinators; and
• Investing more than $7 billion between 2011 and 2016 in Research and Development and an expansion of production capacities and seed processing facilities.

For more than 150 years, Bayer CropScience has worked toward leaving the world a better place. Learn more about the Bayer CropScience CARE Program and the Company's commitment to delivering innovations that help improve lives and improve the planet.

Bayer CropScience Twitter Page: 
http://twitter.com/bayer4cropsus 
http://twitter.com/bayerbeecare

Bayer CropScience Blog:
https://www.bayercropscience.us/news

Bayer CropScience is committed to bringing new technology and solutions for agriculture and non-agricultural uses. For questions concerning the availability and use of products, contact a local Bayer CropScience representative, or visit Bayer CropScience online at www.bayercropscience.us.

Visit the Bayer Connect - Social Hub for all Bayer CropScience social media, recent news, blog posts, videos and more. 

About Bayer CropScience
Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the fields of health care, agriculture and high-tech materials. Bayer CropScience, the subgroup of Bayer AG responsible for the agricultural business, has annual sales of EUR 9,494 million (2014) and is one of the world's leading innovative crop science companies in the areas of seeds, crop protection and non-agricultural pest control. The company offers an outstanding range of products including high value seeds, innovative crop protection solutions based on chemical and biological modes of action as well as an extensive service backup for modern, sustainable agriculture. In the area of non-agricultural applications, Bayer CropScience has a broad portfolio of products and services to control pests from home and garden to forestry applications. The company has a global workforce of 23,100 and is represented in more than 120 countries. This and further news is available at: www.press.bayercropscience.com.

Find more information at www.bayercropscience.us.

Forward-Looking Statements
This release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by Bayer Group or subgroup management. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. These factors include those discussed in Bayer's public reports which are available on the Bayer website at www.bayer.com. The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.

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SOURCE Bayer CropScience