This article appears in the March 2017 issue of Potato Grower.
As consumers demand more transparency and sustainability from the U.S. agriculture industry, Syngenta is working with growers across the country to develop measurable sustainability initiatives. The primary goals of these Sustainable Solutions initiatives are to provide workable solutions for producing more food from fewer resources and to increase awareness of the sustainability practices that already exist in agriculture.
“One thing consumers may not know about farming is that we’re the most environmentally conscious people you’ll ever meet,” said Chad Rubbelke, a grower from Minot, N.D. “We live on the land where we farm. It’s our home and our career, so we take all steps possible to treat it properly.”
“These initiatives are for people down the supply chain. It’s for that lady at the grocery store who’s asking all these questions,” says Stacey Shaw, a Syngenta crop advisor and precision ag specialist. “Consumers might not necessarily even understand what sustainability is. We’re giving growers the opportunity to paint the picture of what sustainability is.”
Growers who have partnered with Syngenta on sustainability initiatives collect more than 200 farm data points per acre to analyze within Land.db, the cloud-based software that is part of Syngenta’s AgriEdge Excelsior whole-farm management program. Analysis of this grower-owned data not only helps them measure their current sustainability efforts, but it also can indicate possible ways to make improvements.
Some of the most recent findings include the following:
- One third of participating growers in the Red River Valley used cover crops on their fields, which helps to improve soil health and water quality.
- In North Dakota, over 90 percent of wheat fields used no-till practices on their farms to help protect fields from soil erosion and reduce cultivation costs.
- Growers in Idaho who practiced soil sampling reduced nitrogen use while enjoying a yield increase on barley acres, compared to growers who didn’t sample soils.
From a grower perspective, this precise data and analysis provide insight into the impact of their farm-management choices when it comes to crop protection products, greenhouse gas emissions, cover crops, tillage, water usage and more.
The program allows growers to keep track of any costs and activities that happen in their fields. Software can be customized for individual needs and can be as basic or as complex and in-depth as specific growers desire.
Stewart Opland, a participating grower from Des Lacs, N.D., said one of the pivotal moments for him after using Land.db was when he understood how fertilizer impacts greenhouse gas emissions.
“We obviously need fertilizer to grow our crops and sustain our business,” Opland said. “But by understanding how applying it can impact the environment, we’ve been able to make sure we’re using it as efficiently as possible.”
Consumer-packaged-goods companies are joining Syngenta and growers like Opland to provide the transparency consumers are demanding about how their food is produced. Liz Hunt, Sustainable Solutions lead at Syngenta, helps connect these downstream companies to growers.
“These collaborations not only enable the food and beverage companies to satisfy the consumer requests for transparency,” Hunt said, “but they are also helping growers make their crops more marketable and sustain their farming businesses for generations to come.”
“If growers are still in business today and being successful farming, they’re sustainable,” says Shaw. “Our focus is growers’ success. If they’re doing good business and being sustainable, so are we.”