The imperative for sustainable practices has never been more urgent. Recognising this, ADM, a global leader in nutrition and agricultural origination and processing company, is pioneering climate-smart agriculture initiatives in the UK with support from Map of Ag. Through this collaboration, both companies aim to promote regenerative agricultural practices and build a more resilient and sustainable food system.
Aims and Initiatives:
Allie Hesketh, Climate Smart Coordinator at ADM, emphasises the goal of ADM’s Regenerative Agriculture programme: “Our aim is to help transition UK agriculture to a more regenerative approach to food production by providing financial and technical support to farmers who are taking positive steps to reduce their carbon footprint, improve water quality, and promote soil health and biodiversity through the implementation of regenerative agriculture practices.”
ADM’s initiative has gained traction since its inception. Initially launched in North America, the programme has seen remarkable success, enrolling over 1 million acres by 2022. Building on this momentum, ADM expanded its reach to Europe, focusing on the UK and Poland. In the UK, ADM Agriculture launched its programme in September 2023, offering incentives to growers across their oilseed rape and part of their milling wheat supply chains for implementing regenerative practices such as conservation tillage and companion cropping.
Map of Ag supports the project by verifying actions undertaken and facilitating data collection and analysis to assess greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity scores and in-field carbon sequestration as a farm performance indicator, alongside other key metrics across participating farms.
“We help remove duplication, by ingesting data from farm management software via our Pure Farming platform.” says Anna Powell, Sales Consultant at Map of Ag.
Solutions offered by Map of Ag to support the ADM regenerative agriculture project, including technical support from experienced sustainability teams and leveraging satellite verification technology to validate actions.
Integration of Sustainability into Business Strategy:
“Sustainability is at the heart of what we do,” states Allie Hesketh. “In our 2022 global sustainability report, we reaffirmed our commitment to sustainability as a foundation of our purpose and a pillar of our growth strategy.”
This commitment permeates every level of ADM, from top leadership down to individual employees. CEO Juan Luciano’s unwavering support underscores the importance of sustainability for long-term growth and resilience.
Collaborative Efforts to Overcome Challenges:
Allie Hesketh identifies a key challenge: “The market is developing rapidly to support lower carbon and more regenerative agricultural practices, and we need to close the gap between engaged and disengaged stakeholders.”
To address this, ADM’s programme remains agile and responsive, supporting farmers in transitioning to regenerative practices while aligning with customer demands. By providing support and incentives, ADM aims to drive positive change within the industry.
“Growers are notoriously busy, so engagement can be a challenge.” Anna Powell acknowledges.
Emphasising the collaborative efforts between Map of Ag and ADM in supporting growers with data sharing and engagement. By providing valuable insights and performance metrics, such as carbon emissions and yield, growers are empowered to monitor their progress and benchmark their performance. This collaborative approach has been instrumental in fostering grower engagement and driving positive outcomes and the knowledge and insight provided dovetails in to the programme’s additional technical support provided to growers, helping them overcome barriers on farm and ensuring the supply chain and growers address these industry wide challenges together.
Future Outlook and Expansion Plans:
Looking ahead, ADM is committed to scaling up its sustainability initiatives. Allie Hesketh notes, “We have the opportunity to help create value for farmers and customers across the range of crops we source while working to reduce the industry’s environmental footprint.”
Leveraging their experience, ADM aims to expand their programme, engaging more farmers and customers to drive widespread adoption of regenerative agriculture practices.
“Precision remote sensing technology is developing at pace,” Anna Powell reflects.
Highlighting the importance of specificity in verification requests to ensure clarity for growers. Looking ahead, Map of Ag aims to explore more precision remote sensing capabilities and integrate farm software as a backbone for data inputs and verification processes, thus enhancing efficiency and accuracy.
Through collaborative efforts, these industry leaders are driving positive change within the agricultural sector and contributing to broader environmental conservation efforts. As the world grapples with pressing environmental challenges, initiatives like ADM’s Regenerative Agriculture programme offer a glimpse of a more sustainable future—one where agriculture serves as a catalyst for positive change.
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