Following last year’s successful launch of the Spanish BayG.A.P. online training aimed at supporting farmers in Latin America, Bayer is now also offering an English version, for which participants can register with immediate effect. The virtual self-learning course is free and available worldwide. It will last from May 28 until July 16, 2018. Further training sessions in Portuguese and Spanish are planned for the second half of 2018.

The seven-week training course was developed in cooperation with the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and provides farmers, auditors and agronomists all over the world with guidance in Good Agricultural Practices. In this way, the course helps farmers increase productivity and profitability, while reducing their environmental footprint, and comply with international certification standards, such as GLOBALG.A.P. “This online training is a crucial step towards ensuring new economic opportunities for smallholder farmers and the implementation of sustainable agricultural practices,” says Ronald Guendel, Global Head of Food Chain Relations at Bayer.

The BayG.A.P online course comprises eleven modules including Integrated Pest Management (IPM), safe use of crop protection, application technology and food safety. Due to the fundamental importance of pollinators for agriculture, the online training also includes a module on bee health.

As part of the Food Chain Partnership business model, the BayG.A.P. online training is an advocate for change. The program supports farmers in meeting the growing demand for safe food. “More and more produce buyers require third-party certification,” says Jose Fabio Morera, Stewardship Manager for Central America and the Caribbean at Bayer and virtual tutor for the BayG.A.P. online training. “Our long-term training objective is to help farmers and traders attain international food safety standards such as GLOBALG.A.P.”

The online training also addresses key challenges in the agricultural industry. “We have a major responsibility to provide an increasing amount of food for an ever-increasing population, ensuring that this food is also increasingly safe,” says Dr. Franklin Marín, Coordinator of the IICA Center for the Promotion of Technical Skills and Leadership. “At IICA we promote initiatives in pursuit of sustainable agricultural development and, through partnership with Bayer, we provide excellent training opportunities for farmers with these needs.”

In 2014, Bayer successfully launched its BayG.A.P. program to train farmers worldwide in implementing Good Agricultural Practices. In collaboration with the global certifier GLOBALG.A.P., the program helps farmers acquire certification standards to better access local or global markets. It enables the sustainable production of crops by focusing on the safe use of crop protection products, pollinator heath, water management, and other important measures to protect the environment and biodiversity while ensuring productivity and profitability.