• Projects include on-farm ponds, check dams, promote water, soil conservation and management for sustainable agriculture

• Budweiser APAC and ICRISAT have successfully developed 94,000 cubic meters storage capacity at pilot villages in the past along with ensuring additional housing income through its Spent Malt initiative

Telangana, December 06, 2019: Strengthening its commitment to ensure communities access quality water, Budweiser APAC today announced that they have signed an MOU with the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) to develop watershed replenishment structures in villages around Charminar and Crown Breweries in Sangareddy district of Telangana, India. This association reinforces the company’s efforts to achieve its 2025 global sustainability goals on water stewardship and builds on Budweiser APAC’s existing partnership with ICRISAT to establish water dispensing centers in the district.

Through this partnership, Budweiser APAC is looking to positively impact 12 target villages in Sangareddy district by establishing more than 100 watershed replenishment structures ranging from on-farm ponds to check dams, promoting conservation and management of water and soil for smart, sustainable agriculture. These villages are located around the company’s Charminar and Crown Breweries in Sangareddy district.

Government officials from the state departments of Telangana across Pollution Control Board, District Rural Development Authority, Irrigation, Ground Water Board, Agriculture, Horticulture and Animal Husbandry were present during this MOU signing ceremony. Representatives of the Government of Telangana’s horticulture and groundwater department, who were present at the launch, suggested strengthening farm diversification activities post improvement in water availability through cultivation of vegetable and improved market access.

Speaking on this partnership, Gagandeep Sethi, Vice President Supply & Logistics – South Asia, Budweiser APAC said, “India is among the 17 countries with the highest number of water stressed areas. We recognize water is an important resource for the well-being of our communities and are working tirelessly to address its scarcity. We are focused on delivering meaningful programs that will help us create value for our communities and achieve our sustainability goals. This agreement with ICRISAT will see us positively impact 12 villages with over 30,000 people while also promoting water and soil resource conservation and management to promote sustainable agriculture practices. We are confident that this will enable us to mobilize the community and ensure that we improve the quality and management of water resources in the areas we operate.”

This partnership will additionally focus on reducing poverty, fighting malnutrition, replenishing watershed, supporting rural development and promoting gender equality. This also helps achieve a circular economy of ensuring 100% of its products used for packaging or production can be recycled by 2025.

Budweiser APAC’s existing partnership with ICRISAT has already resulted in the development of 94,000 cubic meters of water storage capacity in pilot villages over the last seven years. To ensure upliftment of communities through women self-help groups, Budweiser APAC’s spent malt initiative, to use it as animal fodder, was promoted as a business model in Fasalvadi and three other villages of Sangareddy. This helped beneficiary households in the area increase their monthly net income by Rs 5,000.

“ICRISAT’s Development Center is leading the way as an innovation broker, connecting entities concerned about giving to their communities. Many countries can learn from India about the role innovation can have in delivering benefits on the ground. ICRISAT has a key opportunity in taking the learnings from the partnership it has with Budweiser APAC to the global community,” said Dr Peter Carberry, Director General, ICRISAT.

Budweiser APAC has been leading several water security initiatives across the country including water reuse within breweries, watershed management for communities around breweries in Rajasthan, Haryana and Telangana along with water harvesting and management activities with barley farmers through its Smart Barley program. Through the setup of Water Health Centers, the company has been instrumental in providing water access to over 100,000 people in Bengaluru.

About Anheuser-Busch InBev

Anheuser-Busch InBev is a publicly traded company (Euronext: ABI) based in Leuven, Belgium, with secondary listings on the Mexico (MEXBOL: ANB) and South Africa (JSE: ANH) stock exchanges and with American Depositary Receipts on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: BUD). Our Dream is to bring people together for a better world. Beer, the original social network, has been bringing people together for thousands of years. We are committed to building great brands that stand the test of time and to brewing the best beers using the finest natural ingredients. Our diverse portfolio of well over 500 beer brands includes global brands Budweiser®, Corona® and Stella Artois®; multi-country brands Beck’s®, Castle®, Castle Lite®, Hoegaarden® and Leffe®; and local champions such as Aguila®, Antarctica®, Bud Light®, Brahma®, Cass®, Cristal®, Harbin®, Jupiler®, Michelob Ultra®, Modelo Especial®, Quilmes®, Victoria®, Sedrin®, and Skol®. Our brewing heritage dates back more than 600 years, spanning continents and generations. From our European roots at the Den Hoorn brewery in Leuven, Belgium. To the pioneering spirit of the Anheuser & Co brewery in St. Louis, US. To the creation of the Castle Brewery in South Africa during the Johannesburg gold rush. To Bohemia, the first brewery in Brazil. Geographically diversified with a balanced exposure to developed and developing markets, we leverage the collective strengths of approximately 175,000 employees based in nearly 50 countries worldwide. For 2018, AB InBev’s reported revenue was 54.6 billion USD (excluding JVs and associates). Visit us @ www.ab-inbev.com

About ICRISAT

The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) is a not-for-profit international agriculture research organization. ICRISAT works across sub-Saharan Africa and Asia with a wide array of partners. The semi-arid tropics or drylands cover 6.5 million square kilometers of land in 55 countries and are home to over two billion people. ICRISAT is headquartered in Hyderabad, India, with two regional hubs and six country offices in sub-Saharan Africa. ICRISAT is a member of the CGIAR Consortium. www.icrisat.org.

CGIAR is a global agriculture research partnership for a food secure future carried out by 15 research centers, members of the CGIAR Consortium with hundreds of partner organizations. www.cgiar.org