Shimla, India, May 29, 2015 - Bayer CropScience and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) have conducted a one-day Apple Forum in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh. The event saw participation from the Government of Himachal Pradesh and other key stakeholders such as growers, international crop experts, representatives of Solan University and private players. The forum was inaugurated by the Irrigation & Public Health Minister of Himachal Pradesh Vidya Stokes, who has been instrumental in her efforts to support apple growers in Himachal Pradesh.

Discussions in the forum focused on new ways to foster the long-term growth of the apple industry in Himachal Pradesh and how to help growers adopt sustainable farming.

The forum was organized under the umbrella of the Bayer-GIZ project "Apple Value Chain Interventions for Development (AVID)" that will focus on production and supply chain issues concerning apples in Himachal Pradesh (HP) and Jammu & Kashmir. The project aims to improve the income of growers in selected districts through better agronomic practices, value chain interventions and other innovations.

This AVID project has been established under the overall 'Innovation Centers in Agricultural and Food Sector' project as part of the 'One World No Hunger' initiative of the BMZ [German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development]. The GIZ, which is a German government-owned, not-for-profit enterprise supporting sustainable development, is the implementing partner while Bayer CropScience is the main private partner in the AVID project.

Reiterating Bayer CropScience's commitment to finding solutions to combat various challenges faced by the industry, Joerg Rehbein, Bayer CropScience's Country Head for the Indian Subcontinent, said, "At Bayer CropScience, we are constantly improving our product portfolio and approach to better understand and serve the farming community. Companies often need to establish broader partnerships to leverage each other's strengths. At Bayer CropScience, we leverage our unique expertise through projects and partnerships such as this. We will, in the future, focus even more intensively on addressing specific local requirements in apples and other crops in order to aggressively target growth opportunities in a sustainable manner."

In Himachal Pradesh, the apple project will undertake multiple activities such as capacity-building among farmer organizations and establishing a model orchard. In Kashmir, the project will focus on fighting apple scab, a growing concern in the state. International experts will be engaged to bring the best agricultural practices from across the world to apple orchards in these two states. The project duration is 2015-17. Close cooperation will be established with the state universities and national institutes to optimize the project steering, support ongoing initiatives and reach out to a wider grower community.

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.

About GIZ
The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is Germany's leading provider of international cooperation services. As a federal enterprise, the GIZ supports the German Government in achieving its objectives in the field of international cooperation for sustainable development. The GIZ is also engaged in international education work around the globe. GIZ is fully owned by the Federal Republic of Germany, represented as the shareholder by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF). GIZ has more than 16,400 staff around the globe and operates in more than 130 countries worldwide, i.e. almost everywhere.

Find more information at www.bayercropscience.com.

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