Bayer is now entering India’s home garden segment with mini packs of its Seminis® Vegetable Seeds. The home garden segment is massively underserved with limited choices for the farmers. The company aims to leverage its broad portfolio of high-quality hybrid seeds and offer rural farmers & semi-urban growers’ greater choice in growing their own vegetables.
Initially, the mini packs would be launched for Okra, Bitter Gourd, Bottle Gourd and Beans. Later, Bayer will extend its mini packs across the whole range of its Seminis® hybrid seeds. The mini packs would be available in select agri-retail outlets along with Bayer’s Better Life Farming centers across the country. While in commercial farming, farmers purchase large packs suitable for on-farm cultivation, the mini packs will come in 2 sizes - a pack of 25 seeds & 50 seeds. This will help smallholder farmers with flexibility and affordability to cultivate various hybrid seed varieties.
In rural farming households, farmers often keep aside a small section of their farm to grow vegetables for their own consumption. In semi-urban towns, having a kitchen garden in the home backyard is a common practice. Though these are small segments in comparison to commercial farming, its impact on rural food security & sustainable food cultivation is big. To ensure awareness on the cultivation of hybrid vegetable seeds and educate growers on the right crop care advisory, Bayer would conduct trainings in markets where it will launch its mini packs.
Bayer will also extend its mini packs to urban markets in 2021 to cater to kitchen & hobby gardeners. The company will look at collaborating with e-commerce partners as well as plant nursery e-tailers to extend the reach of its high-quality hybrid seeds to urban markets.
The UN General Assembly has declared 2021 as the ‘International Year of Fruits and Vegetables’. The International Year aims to create awareness about the nutritional and health benefits of fruit and vegetable consumption, strengthen the role of farmers in sustainable farming & production practices and address the high levels of food loss and waste in fruit and vegetable supply chains. The launch of Bayer’s mini packs for vegetable seeds are perfectly aligned with these UN priorities and will help enhance access to safe, nutritious, affordable foods, including fruits and vegetables for India’s growing population.
