The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Firm pledges to work for a green future
One of the UK’s biggest arable businesses has published a charter outlining how it plans to help growers meet the twin challenges of producing food while helping the environment.
Agrii, which provides agronomy advice and sells crop protection products, says its Green Horizons document showcases the company’s commitment to sustainable food production and helping its customers become more resilient.
“Sustainable food production is a delicate balance of competing priorities and many would argue that they can and should be complementary,” said Agrii’s head of technical, Clare Bend.
Speaking at a virtual press briefing to launch Green Horizons, Ms Bend said an example of competing priorities was the need for growers to produce safe and affordable food, while also meeting net-zero and climate change targets.
“We have a duty to try to help our customers adapt to this changing food production landscape,” she added.
She said Green Horizons had five objectives – to increase farm productivity and viability; to provide integrated whole farm solutions; to improve soil resilience; to enhance the environment; and to increase stakeholder engagement.
Various different initiatives will be launched as part of the Green Horizons charter, including an innovation award to encourage creative thinking in the arable sector and a new tool to measure soil health.
“We want the tool to be relatively inexpensive, easy to measure and scientifically sound,” added Ms Bend.
She said Agrii was also in the process of establishing a Green Horizons farmer network of like-minded growers to work collaboratively towards sustainable food production.
“We will be working to help them work on net-zero goals and biodiversity, with an eye on farmer profitability as well,” said Ms Bend.
“Sharing information is going to be very important over the next five to 10 years.”