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Bayer: Building crop resilience starts with soil health

Extreme weather events like drought and flooding are becoming more common for midwestern farmers, so Bayer Crop Science is helping growers make their land more resilient.

Bayer’s Leo Bastos tells Brownfield increasing crop tolerance to extreme weather starts with improving soil health and sustainability of the land.

“By improving soil health and soil structure, farmers will have better risk mitigation to those events and resiliency to produce more. Their yields are going to be shown at the field level.”

He says implementing practices like no-till and cover crops helps the soil build organic matter, and in turn store more carbon and retain more water.

“For every 1% of organic matter that is built, roughly 3,000 gallons of water per acre are added to the soil. So a farmer who is doing this in a drought for example, they are going to be better suited to manage that type of event because their soil is better.”

Brownfield interviewed Bastos during the 2022 Bayer Crop Science Field Technology Showcase in St. Louis.

Bayer is launching a new program on Monday to help farmers and companies work together on sustainable ag practices. Check back here for updates on the new platform.

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