Creating chemistry for sustainable agriculture

Building an enduring foundation for a grower’s legacy

 

At BASF, our mission is to create chemistry for a sustainable future. That means we’re working to contribute to an enhanced and enduring quality of life for everyone. In agriculture, that means we’re creating chemistry for and with our customers.

 

Nurturing the land

 

For farmers, it all starts with the land. If the land isn’t cared for properly with the correct stewardship practices, farmers have no way to make a living. Over the years, manufacturers have begun stepping up and making products more helpful in protecting a farmer’s land.

 

“The different manufacturers have created technologies that are much more safe for the environment, much more safe for us as the handlers,” said Mark Mickelsen, a potato grower from Idaho.

 

Joe Sabbatini, a rice grower from Arkansas, said, “It all leads back to efficiency, the technology in the chemistries. It seems like now we put an ounce an acre of something — or a quarter of an ounce — instead of a gallon.”

 

Sustaining a legacy

 

If sustainability starts with protecting and ensuring the land’s future and health, it extends into ensuring a healthy future for each farmer’s operation. We partner with our farmers in ways beyond inputs to help ensure healthy, profitable results season after season.

 

Mike Behrhorst, a BASF Innovation Specialist, works with farmers to build agriculture business plans, but also helps farmers establish a legacy on their farms with sustainable agriculture.

 

“Farmers are always thinking: How do they stay profitable enough to continue to build a legacy?” Behrhorst said. “We focus on the herbicide and the fungicide, but we also look at every little thing that he’s doing to maximize each piece as we put that full plan together. Each and every year, you can see more profitability and much more sustainable agriculture.”

 

Stewarding the land and our precious resources while staying profitable and successful — together, this helps build an enduring foundation for a grower’s legacy.

 

Rusty Grills, a corn and soybean grower in Tennessee, is a ninth-generation farmer who hopes to pass his land off to the 10th generation. “This farm has been in our family since the 1830s. We’re going to keep it around for a lot longer,” said Grills.

 

With sustainable agriculture, farmers have the ability to protect their land, their legacy and even their profitability. There will always be farming, and there will always be farmers. Just as certainly, BASF will always be at their side. We create chemistry for a sustainable future.

 

To learn more about sustainability at BASF, please visit agproducts.basf.com.

 

 

About BASF’s Agricultural Solutions division
With a rapidly growing population, the world is increasingly dependent on our ability to develop and maintain sustainable agriculture and healthy environments. Working with farmers, agricultural professionals, pest management experts and others, it is our role to help make this possible. That’s why we invest in a strong R&D pipeline and broad portfolio, including seeds and traits, chemical and biological crop protection, soil management, plant health, pest control and digital farming. With expert teams in the lab, field, office and in production, we connect innovative thinking and down-to-earth action to create real world ideas that work – for farmers, society and the planet. In 2017, our division generated sales of €5.7 billion. For more information, please visit www.agriculture.basf.com or any of our social media channels.

 

About BASF
At BASF, we create chemistry for a sustainable future. We combine economic success with environmental protection and social responsibility. The more than 115,000 employees in the BASF Group work on contributing to the success of our customers in nearly all sectors and almost every country in the world. Our portfolio is organized into five segments: Chemicals, Performance Products, Functional Materials & Solutions, Agricultural Solutions and Oil & Gas. BASF generated sales of €64.5 billion in 2017. BASF shares are traded on the stock exchange in Frankfurt (BAS) and as American Depositary Receipts (BASFY) in the U.S. Further information at www.basf.com.