AB InBev India upskills over 2,000 farmers for Barley Growers Day

AB InBev India has reinforced its commitment to barley farmers by celebrating the fourth edition of ‘Barley Growers Day’. To acknowledge Barley farmers from Haryana and Rajasthan, an event at Farukh Nagar in Haryana on Monday highlighted a portfolio of technology and crop management initiatives that address farmer needs and improve agriculture production while driving sustainability across the value chain.

Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of Haryana, Jai Parkash Dalal, was the Chief Guest for this event along with Mark Rosmann, Agricultural Attaché & Dr Santosh Singh – Agricultural Specialist from US Embassy/US Department of Agriculture. Timothy Synhaeve, Economic Counsellor, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, participated from Belgium Embassy, and Anil Kumar, Deputy Director, Agriculture and animal welfare department.

The event featured a display of multiple crop management trials showing farmers the latest and best practices in barley growing, cutting-edge equipment, and farmer education with R&D professionals, a press release issued by AB InBev India said.

It said that AB InBev India is dedicated to engaging with the farmers through the Smart Barley program and working with them to create a sustainable livelihood by empowering them and offering them sufficient input and knowledge to boost crop productivity and profitability. The goal of the Smart Barley programme is for 100% of all direct Barley farmers by 2025 to be skilled, connected, and financially empowered.

Sharing information on the Smart Barley program, Ashwin Kak, Head of Procurement and Sustainability, India and Southeast Asia, AB InBev, said, “We are committed to helping India's barley farmers. Over the years, we have expanded our involvement in farmer engagement and volume footprint, continuing to improve the scope of our engagement to drive farmers' adoption of more productive and profitable agriculture practices through guidance by agronomists and research experts. We are committed to increasing profitability for barley farmers by enabling the right price for the right product, reducing input costs, and fueling economic growth. We will continue partnering with more farmers to produce high-quality barley by investing in developing improved varieties and providing access to quality seeds and inputs. In 2023, we aim to impact 3,000 farmers with a volume footprint of 20,000 tonnes.”

India is a huge growth market for barley, with the demand for barley malt increasing by 15% over the past five years. The need for locally grown malt has shifted to local sourcing for the next five years, with huge growth potential as Indian demand for malt-grade barley has seen total growth of around 15% compared to 2015. Most of the demand had historically been met by importing malt barley, and now the needs are shifting to localisation. In such a global mix of factors of supply-chain disruptions and local growth potential of Malt-quality Barley, an engagement with progressive Barley farmers becomes an important area of direct intervention for us.

Addressing the gathering, Ram Niwas Singh, a Barley farmer from Farukh Nagar, said, “For three years now, I have been attending the Smart Barley programme. Each year this programme has benefitted farmers like me in several ways. The company experts provide us with knowledge about holistic development, access to technology and training to make our work easier, more efficient, and more productive. This has helped me and others like me to improve our yields and incomes. To receive the most benefits, I encourage more farmer friends to sign up for this initiative.”

The Smart Barley programme aims to make a difference for farmers. The programme will transform and create a sustainable future for communities and their farmers while making a difference in consumers’ lives. AB InBev India is dedicated to achieving real outcomes in Circular Packaging, Smart Agriculture, Water Stewardship and Climate Action—all of which ensure that communities continue to thrive. It also leads campaigns for responsible drinking and road safety.