Syngenta, PepsiCo partner to promote regenerative agriculture

DAILY Bites

• Syngenta’s Sustainable Sourcing Program allows companies to obtain an additional profitability benefit

• Farmers participating in the program will get between 1% and 2% higher the price of their sunflower grain versus domestic market price.

• In its first year of implementation in Argentina, 4,000 tons of sunflower oil produced in fields applying verified regenerative agriculture practices were delivered to PepsiCo.

DAILY Discussion

Syngenta and PepsiCo have spent the past year collaborating in South America to boost regenerative and traceable agriculture in the food industry value chain in a transparent and verifiable way. In the first stage of this partnership, Syngenta provided PepsiCo with 4,000 tons of sunflower oil from fields of farmers in the Argentine provinces of Buenos Aires, La Pampa, San Luis, and Santa Fe, who applied regenerative agriculture practices.

The second stage is now about to kick off.

The next goal is to increase the hectares that implement these practices by at least 25 percent. Through Syngenta’s Sustainable Sourcing Program, farmers can trace the good practices carried out on their fields — like crop rotation, cover crops, irrigation efficiency, use of biological products, and pollinator habitat development — with constant support and monitoring from Syngenta, and obtain an additional value per ton, which is granted by the verification of these practices. The process includes third-party validation, ensuring security throughout the entire commercial chain.

The commercialization of sunflower grain is carried out through Syngenta’s AVC (Agriculture Value Chain) program, which facilitates the exchange and export of oil.

The traceability of field practices is executed through Syngenta’s Cropwise digital platform, with which farmers can measure and verify their regenerative practices and implement continuous improvement plans, to ensure compliance of these practices.

“Companies have a great responsibility to care for and improve the way we produce food. At PepsiCo, everything we do is driven by sustainability at its core, within the framework of pep+, our global transformation strategy that aims to create and inspire positive change on the planet and in people,” said Santiago Desmery, Oils Category Leader, PepsiCo Southern Cone and Brazil.

PepsiCo is in the news often as a promoter of regenerative agriculture and sustainable farming practices. The company has employed demonstration farms that showcase water stewardship and satellite usage, and as recently as 2023, PepsiCo pledged to invest $216 million into bolstering regenerative ag through the Illinois Corn Growers’ Association and the Practical Farmers of Iowa, Soil and Water Outcomes Fund.