Value chain: upstream
Agriculture, aquaculture & fishing
Global agriculture & aquaculture firms adopt circular economy against resource scarcity and regulation.
By promoting smart agriculture, food producers can reduce their carbon footprint.
Upstream risks can be mitigated through sustainable procurement practices.
Resource scarcity, growing sustainability awareness, and increased consumer and regulatory pressure all pose risks to agriculture and aquaculture businesses. There is a push towards a more circular economy, as well as reducing emissions while increasing crop yields without expanding cultivated area. As a result, businesses have developed a few sustainable agriculture practices that impact positively on crop quality, greenhouse gas emissions, soil quality, and water usage efficiency.
Circular economy initiatives, which aim to preserve the value and prolong the life of products, can minimise resource consumption and, as a result, the environmental impacts.
Yara worked with suppliers to evaluate raw material portfolio in light of the regulations and to investigate options to use more circular materials.
Tessenderlo offers various products and environmentally friendly solutions, where in it typically reclaims and transforms byproducts from other industries.
Smart agriculture reduces energy use while conserving fertiliser and pesticide supplies. Kubota Group promotes automatic operation of farm machinery and water environment solutions technology, to boost crop yields and the quality of crops.
Corteva invests in science-based solutions like as new breeding techniques and biological plant health solutions to decrease fertiliser inputs needed. Combining AGCO’s precision fertilising technology with strip tillage can cut fertiliser costs by 20%.
Plant biostimulants are a new and promising innovation that boosts nutrient availability and efficiency and leads to higher crop yields.
According to EBIC (European Biostimulants Industry Council), biostimulants can boost nutrient absorption and utilisation by up to 25%.
NeoVita 43TM, ADM’s new agricultural biostimulant, boosts corn yields by improving nutrient use efficiency. In 2022, ADM expanded testing efforts to pre-commercial on-farm trials with fertilizer customers.
Businesses have continued to develop sustainable procurement practices in response to stringent regulations. Sustainability ratings and supplier audits are two critical components.
Yara launched its first Sustainable Procurement Policy that outlines how to deliver sustainable values by setting up a high standard of suppliers’ sustainability performance. A comprehensive Supplier Compliance Management Process will be created to enable systematic and risk-based assessments of suppliers' compliance.
