With the largest population in the world but with an estimated 80% of that population suffering from micronutrient deficiencies, India is essentially at the epicenter of the global malnutrition crisis, according to Sandeep Verma, country division head of Consumer Health at Bayer India.
He told Devex that in this role he has been developing strategies to combine the expertise they have in consumer health, including improving access to nutritional supplements, with the in-depth knowledge of Bayer’s Crop Science division, which aims to sustainably increase the production of healthy and nutritious food to truly tackle key elements of the country’s issues with malnutrition.
Verma joined Bayer in India, just as COVID-19 started, to set up the Consumer Health division, kicking off a busy few years of aiming to reach millions of consumers with health and nutrition products, as well as providing them with vital information about meeting their nutrition needs.
In addition to in-house initiatives that provide support in areas of health and agriculture for under-served communities, Bayer works with partners, including the nonprofit Vitamin Angels, which expands access to prenatal vitamins to pregnant women, and reach52, a tech platform which delivers health information through digital technology.
Sitting down with Devex, Verma told us more about how Bayer is fighting the multifaceted issues preventing so many from fulfilling their nutritional needs, and consequently from reaching their potential.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
What are some of the food, health, and nutrition challenges in India that Bayer is seeking to address?
It’s the most populous nation in the world, and 80% of the population has some form of micronutrient deficiency. That means that nearly half of the approximately 2 billion people in the world who have any kind of micronutrient deficiency come from India.
India also has the highest number of people with anemia worldwide. We refer to it as hidden hunger — because it affects your health, it affects your learning ability, it affects your productivity, everything. It becomes a vicious cycle of malnutrition leading to under-development and poverty.
We conducted a nationwide survey of doctors to truly understand the issue. They told us that even when adhering to an optimal diet in India, one might only achieve approximately 70% of the required micronutrients. And that means you will still need some form of supplementation to get to 100% of your body's micronutrient needs.
Bayer covers both aspects of balanced nutrition — the Crop Science division, [which] addresses the food part, and the Consumer Health division, [which] addresses the supplementation part.
How are you combining the expertise and footprint of agriculture, pharmaceuticals, and consumer health to enhance impact?
Bayer has been delivering breakthrough innovations in health care and agriculture in India for over 125 years. We want to contribute to a world where diseases are not only treated effectively but prevented and no one goes to bed hungry. That means ensuring people can take better care of their own health needs, and that enough agricultural products are produced sustainably to support the growing world population.
Through our consumer health products, we reach over 45 million households here, and through our crop science solutions, we reach nearly 25 million farmers. That means we can meaningfully help with that 70%/30%, split.
We launched the Nutrient Gap Initiative globally in 2021 with an ambition to provide access to essential vitamins and minerals to over 50 million people in underserved communities every year by 2030, and India is an important part of that. The program leverages expertise across our three divisions.
Tell me about some of the projects that Bayer runs to improve access to nutrition.
We’ve partnered with reach52, a tech-based social enterprise whose aim is to reach the 52% of people who are without essential health care access globally.
With them, we’re providing nutritional education for people in semi-urban and rural areas, focusing on food supplementation and overall dietary awareness. Our commitment extends beyond a single interaction; we will assess nutritional habits pre- and post-intervention. Our strategies will be adapted according to their effectiveness, initiating our efforts in the states of Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh.
In addition, we’re working with Vitamin Angels to expand access to Multiple Micronutrient Supplementation — essentially prenatal vitamins. We’re working with them and their network of local clinics to distribute 180-day supplies of MMS to pregnant women and to facilitate health education for them. We aim to reach 4 million women globally.
We have other nutrition-related projects within Bayer. One is aimed at building new distribution channels for Supradyn — an affordable multivitamin. Our goal is to make it accessible to a broader segment of the population, aiding in addressing the 30% nutrient requirement gap.
Another initiative is Better Life Farming, or BLF. The whole 70% side of the equation starts with the farmer — they need access to sufficient and nutritious food too, to be able to grow the nutritious food the world needs. It’s a public-private alliance aiming to uplift underserved smallholder communities through a holistic ecosystem approach with access to education, products, and ideas. Improving their livelihoods in turn helps them to support local food security. We have about 1,600 BLF centers across the country, catering to half a million farmers.
We’re planning to bring the health and nutrition education that is part of the Nutrient Gap Initiative to the BLF centers in India too. So in addition to farming practices, the farmers will also learn about how to take care of their families. That is how we can close the 70/30 gap.
What has worked effectively in projects that involve partnerships?
As with any successful partnership, the most important thing is bringing together the strengths of each collaborator.
We are also utilizing the fact that a lot of these programs are global, so the BLF centers are running in Indonesia, for example, and reach52 and Vitamin Angels have projects in other countries too. So, we’ve been able to bring in learnings from those places. And it means we don’t have to manage the logistics of working with lots of small partners across multiple countries.
We’ve identified good partners where the value systems match, and that have deep roots in the communities we want to reach. Their robust governance practices not only guarantee quality but will also ensure consistency.
What role does technology play in the delivery of these projects?
One of the biggest challenges has always been how to reach people in areas where the physical infrastructure is quite poor. But there’s been a boom in access to phones and broadband internet, meaning many digital tools are now available.
We’ve developed and piloted a voice-based engagement tool, for example, specifically designed to help low-income consumers who do not have access to doctors. It’s a unique AI voice detection-based response platform for pain management. Users can dial up a number to access information. Most people in these communities do not have smartphones. The idea is to convert that non-smartphone into a health care device using AI. We’re already very pleased with the system, it had a successful pilot and we’re going to take it forward.
Reach52 also has an education and health solution marketplace which can be hosted on a single digital platform and works offline. That is indispensable in areas without the internet as it can help community health workers with a better way to educate residents and track progress. We’ve collaborated with reach52 in Kenya on a nutrition education campaign in an area without broadband.
So, technology is critical and has been a catalyst for change, and I think we’ve still got more we can do with it.
What lessons can be drawn from your work around fostering more cross-industry collaboration?
It’s critical to engage partners who share your vision. Only then can you work with them to set clear, measurable goals.
It’s also key to understand that behaviors and habit changes take quite a long time — you cannot expect people or communities to change their habits in one year after one interaction. You have to keep working with them consistently.
Major challenges such as health inequity, food insecurity, and malnutrition mean that it could take up to a generation to see change. We, of course, have the advantage of our three divisions — agriculture, health care, and consumer health — under one roof. We have these common goals which all three divisions are striving towards, we bring together our strengths to make an impact.
More private sector companies need to come together on this, work with the government, and forge partnerships to support that.
What would be your call to action for the wider global development community when it comes to addressing these challenges?
One single driver around the work we are doing on malnutrition is how to reach that 70% and then the remaining 30% [of reaching complete micronutrient needs]. It helps to have a number, a goal to hit for the global community to address malnutrition. The exact numbers may vary from country to country — but in developing countries, it’s likely to be similar, and it’s worth considering that.
It’s good to start with a common process and think about how you will address these two areas. It’s critical to get to 100%, and therefore different fields need to work together. In our case, we are doing that, within our company as one Bayer. I envision the global community adopting a similar stance, working cohesively, and overcoming barriers as one.
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