The need for urgent, comprehensive and coordinated action to address the food crisis and its root causes has been recognized. While government leadership is crucial for addressing the implications of the food crisis, business also has a vital role to play in partnership with others to develop and implement innovative responses.
"Food Sustainability - A Guide to Private Sector Action" features 37 examples of best and emerging practices in seven key areas relating to food sustainability (1. Water management; 2. Agricultural inputs and infrastructure; 3. Financial mechnisms and risk management instruments; 4. Nutrition; 5. Energy and biofuels; 6. The role of Information and Communication Technology; 7. Job opportunities for rural low-income populations), as well as suggested actions for businesses to contribute in these areas. The publication was produced by the Global Compact Office, in partnership with a broad alliance of UN agencies and Bretton Woods institutions.
Many companies – both large and small, and from developed and developing countries – are already playing an active role both individually within their own value chains and collectively in partnership with other private sector enterprises and with governments and civil society organizations.
Following are examples of actions being taken by Global Compact participants to help address the food crisis.
1. Netafim: Technology for Improved Water Efficiency
Water efficiency is one of the greatest environmental challenges facing the agricultural sector. Farmers need assistance to develop precise and efficient irrigation methods that help conserve water sources in the struggle against water scarcity. Advanced irrigation methods can also enable farmers to reduce water sources pollution. This can also positively impact food supply. More efficient irrigation methods can increase yield with the same water and soil resources that result in more crop per water/soil unit. New technology further enables irrigation of crops in areas that traditionally relied mainly on rain.
Netafim delivers Sustainable Water Management solutions addressing current water challenges. Since inception, the company has pioneered innovative, low-volume irrigation systems and has developed new drip irrigation methods, which helps minimize water resources depletion, significantly reduces usage of nutrients and crop protection material and therefore prevents water sources pollution. These advanced irrigation methods, coupled with agronomic know-how, enable irrigation of areas that suffer from water shortage and accessibility, increase yield per soil and water unit, and preserve soil fertility by preventing soil erosion.
2. Novozymes: Bio Solutions Aid Sustainable Agriculture and Food Production
Novozymes' enzymatic and microbial biosolutions are applied in 130 countries, across a broad array of industries including animal feed, agriculture and food. A precondition for food sustainability is a stable climate offering suitable conditions for agriculture and animal farming. At present, climate change is one of the biggest challenges to securing acreage and plant growth since severe conditions such as flooding and draughts are escalating, especially in areas already toiling with poverty and low yields from agriculture.
Use of enzymes and microbes in production can increase the yield of a wide range of processes, including agriculture and animal farming. This enables farmers to increase yields while reducing the human impact on climate change and increasing secure farmland acreage.
One such bio-solution allows farmers to raise the level of phosphates in soil – a critical component of agricultural production. Phosphates are commonly added as industrial fertilizer in intensified agriculture. However, though fertilizers aid agricultural yield, they hold significant challenges to food sustainability: Substantial quantities of greenhouse gases are emitted from fertilizers, while increased demand and the increased cost of oil and gas mean that fertilizers are economically unavailable to many farmers. A phosphate innoculant containing a naturally occurring fungus that colonizes plant roots and makes the soil-bound and mineral forms of phosphate available for crop use can improve yield and promotes better phosphate use in a wide range of crops. The benefits to the farmer include better crop quality, better fertilizer efficiency, greater stress tolerance, higher yield (trials show average of seven percent higher yield) and cost savings. The resulting lower emission of greenhouse gasses can become significant through a wider application of this and other modifications of fertilizer use.
3. Swiss Reinsurance Company: Weather risk solutions for smallholder farmers
Swiss Re, a global reinsurer based in Switzerland, is committed to developing and implementing financial solutions that adapt and respond to climate challenges. Swiss Re pioneered weather risk transfer instruments in low-income markets, starting in India in 2004. Since then, more than 350,000 smallholder farmers have been covered. Innovative index-based insurance solutions, such as weather risk transfer, can help prevent increases in food insecurity and malnutrition which are projected to occur in developing countries as a result of climate change.
In 2007, Swiss Re launched the Climate Adaptation Development Programme to create a financial risk transfer market for the effects of adverse weather in emerging countries. Under this Programme, Swiss Re: (1) offers its expertise and a dedicated team of specialists to develop, structure, price and implement financial risk transfer solutions, such as weather index insurance; (2) participates in the risk transfer of such solutions; (3) financially supports related research and risk assessments; and (4) hosts training sessions and high-profile events to promote the development of a commercial market for these instruments.
Under the programme, Swiss Re is engaged in partnerships with non-profit organizations, leading universities, humanitarian relief organizations and institutions active in micro-finance and micro-insurance to develop weather risk transfer solutions in many parts of Africa, including Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Rwanda and South Africa.
Through the programme, Swiss Re hopes to contribute to the development of a risk transfer market that will help smallholder farmers buy agricultural inputs, overcome a lack of collateral for micro-credit solutions, draw upon agricultural extension services, accumulate income, and ultimately improve food sustainability.
4. Grameen Danone Foods: Meeting the nutritional needs of Bangladeshi children
In March 2006, the Grameen Group and Groupe Danone joined forces to create a new Bangladeshi-based company, Grameen Danone Foods Ltd. The initiative combines Groupe Danone’s expertise in healthy foods with Grameen Group’s specialization in micro-credit and economic development.
Grameen Danone Foods Ltd. developed a yoghurt to meet the specific nutritional needs of Bangladeshi children, providing the benefits of milk and the micronutrients lacking in their normal diet. The first production plant in Bogra began operating in November 2006, producing the yoghurt “Shoktidoi” at a highly affordable price. When used to its full capacity, as forecasted for the end of 2009, the plant will be able to reach 300,000 children.
The price for an 80 gram portion of “Shoktidoi” had been set at 5 BDT (around 6 Euro cents), making it affordable for the poorest families in Bangladesh. As milk is the main ingredient in “Shoktidoi”, the price is crucial in determining the sustainability of the business model. Hyperinflation of milk (+65%) has forced Grameen Danone to find creative solutions to avoid increasing the price without compromising the fortification levels, as the local population in Bogra is not able to pay more than 5 BDT. The food crisis is a major threat for the success of the Grameen Danone venture in terms of reaching the very poor.
GAIN, the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, further supports the initiative by providing technical expertise in fortification and social marketing, and has funded an efficacy study conducted by John Hopkins University to evaluate the health impact of “Shoktidoi”.
Alongside improving the nutrition of the Bangladeshi population, Grameen Danone Foods aims to fight poverty through a unique, “proximity-based” business model. The company promotes local business activity and creates jobs at the plant, in the agricultural industry, and in sales and distribution. A distribution system where “Grameen Ladies” make door-to-door sales, will create an income for more than 1,600 women once the plant is used to full capacity. Further, the “Grameen Ladies” are trained to convey a nutrition-based message developed in partnership with Danone and GAIN. Such professional training, as well as offering micro-financing solutions, helps to ensure the initiative’s long-term success.
5. The Petrobras Biodiesel Program: Fostering Family Farming in Brazil
The role of biofuels is of fundamental importance in the drive to reduce global warming. That is why, among other reasons, Petrobras has created a new subsidiary of the company: Petrobras Biocombustível.
Due to its geographical characteristics, Brazil has excellent conditions to produce biofuels. The cultivation of oleaginous crops such as peanuts, sunflower and castor seeds alongside food crops facilitates the generation of income and creates opportunities for rural employment.
Petrobras’ Biodiesel Program aims to develop the biofuels market whilst promoting family farms as suppliers. Three industrial biodiesel units have been built: Candeias in Bahia, Quixadá in Ceará and Montes Claros in Minas Gerais. These plants, all located in low-income rural areas in the Brazilian semiarid region, use currently available technology to process oil seeds, with a capacity of 171,000 m3 per year.
The creation of Petrobras Biocombustível reinforces the company’s commitment to the environment and its performance in the biofuels sector, in which it plans to invest $1.5 billion by 2012. The company intends to be the leading domestic biodiesel producer and also to enhance its participation in the ethanol business, focusing mainly on the international market.
In addition to its environmental benefits, biofuel production encourages social and economic development of rural areas, by associating incentive programs with family agriculture. Petrobras has developed support programs for 55,000 low-income families living close to its facilities, for oilseed planting, focusing on biofuel production. This initiative supports and promotes the creation or consolidation of local cooperatives, training for qualification, technical management of the production chain and market development.
One of the main values of the program is planting of oleaginous crops along with staple foods. For example, castor and sun-flower planted in conjunction with beans and manioc. This supports a multi-crop model, preserving local culture and ensuring food production.
6. Microsoft: Digital Green – A Framework for Agricultural Extension
Microsoft’s Digital Green initiative is a research project that brings audio-visual information on new farming trends and techniques to small and marginal farming communities in India. The system improves the efficiency of extension programs by delivering targeted content to a wider audience and enabling farmers to better manage their farming operations with reduced field support.
In a four-month trial involving 16 villages (1070 households), Digital Green increased adoption of certain agriculture practices by a factor of six to seven times over classical person-only agriculture extension. Each village was given a TV and a DVD-player, and one digital camera and PC shared among all 16 villages.
Compared to previous efforts, the introduction of the Digital Green system has led to a five-fold increase in the number of farmers seeking to apply better agricultural practices. Digital Green aims to scale its system to offer relevant agricultural extension services to a much wider population of farmers.
The initiative has created a repository of videos that includes testimonials of progressive farmers, field demonstrations led by agriscientists, interactions between farmers, and market-based opportunities. The library currently contains over 150 locally-produced videos in the Kannada language. These recordings are shown to individuals on laptops, small groups using shared TV and DVD players, and communities through the village cable network. One of the main benefits of the Digital Green approach is that the content is local and speaks to the problems specific to the villages. Because the content features both knowledge experts and local farmers, those watching are motivated to adopt a new practice when they see a fellow villager, living in similar circumstances, experience its benefits.
7. Shirosawa Company SAIC: Introducing Sesame Cultivation in Rural Paraguay
Shirosawa Company SAIC began operating in Paraguay in 1971. The company initially sought to identify an agricultural product that could be cultivated in Paraguay to serve the Japanese market. After determining that sesame plants would work well in Paraguayan soil and climate, Shirosawa worked with other major Japanese companies to provide the necessary expertise and financial investment to aid small scale farmers in the cultivation of this new crop.
Today the company works directly with over 20,000 small sesame farmers, with a staff of approximately 100 employees engaged in agricultural extension, production, and export. The company has worked with producers in the poorest and most troubled areas of the country, allowing these communities to develop an alternative industry that promotes economic development. Additionally, Shirosawa supplies major international companies with its sesame, thus directly allowing rural communities in Paraguay to access demand in a global marketplace. As a result of the Shirowsawa Company’s introduction of sesame cultivation, thousands of farmers in the poorest regions of Paraguay now have an additional source of income.
Read more about Food Sustainability and corporate efforts to address the food crisis.
