

The campaign in Spain
In Spain corn is grown on around 400,000 hectares, or about 2.5 % of the total farmland of some 16 million hectares. The deflector campaign that began in January 2016 has focused on Spanish corn farmers. Francisco Miro Segura, Bayer Spain’s Sustainable Agricultural Manager, explains the campaign mechanics: “We contacted all the machine manufacturers operating in Spain, e.g., Monosem, Khun, Sola, Gaspardo, and Kverneland, and explained the Bayer campaign to them and why it is so important to deliver sowing machines equipped with deflectors. We also gave them a brochure showing best sowing practices in corn and a poster explaining our subsidization of the deflector technology.” Monosem has been Bayer’s main partner, as their two distributors in Spain proactively communicated the campaign in the provinces of Girona, Lleida, Huesca, Zaragoza, Navarra, and León in northern Spain, and Caceres, Badajoz, Seville, Albacete, Cádiz, and Córdoba in southern Spain. “In May and June,” Francisco adds, “we organized meetings with the farmers to explain how important it is to install a deflector in order to minimize the potential risk of dust emissions to pollinators or watercourses – just by avoiding the release of contaminated dust into the air.” Meetings with local farmers were complemented by press releases in each of the provinces. The campaign is continuing in 2017 with deflectors being delivered to Kverneland and Sola.