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Capacity Building Key to Future of Regenerative Agriculture

By Javier Valdés - Syngenta
CEO for North Latin America

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Javier Valdés By Javier Valdés | CEO for Mexico and North LATAM - Fri, 01/20/2023 - 10:00

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In my previous articles, I have been reiterative around one topic: regenerative agriculture. Not only because it is in my top of mind and because I truly believe that data and new, more rounded perspectives are opening new doors for agricultural systems, but because it is Syngenta’s strategy to impact deeply how agriculture is done globally. 

Syngenta has been leading sustainable agriculture around the world since 2014, when we launched The Good Growth Plan, our global auditable, public, and measurable plan to help growers produce more with fewer inputs. After eight years of thoroughly working on this, the vision not only of conservation but regeneration has become a reality, summing up everything we have been building and delivering over  the years.

Regenerative agriculture is an outcome-based food production system that nurtures and restores soil health, protects the climate, water resources and biodiversity, and enhances farm productivity and profitability. There are five key principles: minimizing soil disturbance, having plants in the ground all year around, diversifying crops in time and space, integrating livestock when possible and assuring precision application of biological and chemical inputs. 

But how can we really change our growers’ mindset and start talking to them about not only increasing their production, but helping them make this topic top of mind as it is with us?

Youth Is a Key Component 

According to 2019’s ENA (National Agriculture Survey) in Mexico, 45.8 percent of growers in the country are over 60 years old, 44.1 percent are between 40 and 60 years old and only 2.0 percent are young adults between 18 and 30 years old. 

This model repeats all over the world; new generations are no longer interested in agriculture and feeding the world. This creates a problem: who will feed the world in the coming years? It also sets up a red flag in terms of adoption of more sustainable practices in agriculture. 

Young farmers play a vital role in the transformation of agrifood systems, aiming to make them more efficient, but also more inclusive, resilient and sustainable. Young farmers organizations are passionate about agriculture, but also understand the global issues around climate change and food production and the unique opportunity that agriculture has to strongly contribute to real change. They are able to mobilize and harness the creative energy needed to fight against hunger and achieve food security, while protecting our planet. And they are keen to learn more about how they can make small changes in the way they produce to have a more profound impact on the world. 

What Have We Done? 

For many years, Syngenta has led face-to-face training in the most important topic for us: safe use of agrochemicals and empowering smallholders to use better technologies. 

In the first period of our Good Growth Plan, between 2014 and 2020, we promised to train 20 million smallholders, and in the end, we were able  to train 50 percent more: 40.2 million growers around the globe. This outstanding number has an important insight: Growers around the world are extremely keen to receive technical advice to generate capacity building in several areas. How can we further contribute? 

During 2020, our face-to-face training was severely hurt due to lockdowns and restrictions. Food production needed to continue regardless, but training sessions and capabilities were paused. 

We decided to complement our training journey in the digital arena, which is how #PROAgricultor was born. #PROAgricultor (www.proagricultor.com) is an open-source platform, free and accessible for everyone who has an internet connection.  It is directed not only at growers, but everyone involved in the agrifood production chain. We aim to set the benchmark on the key topics of sustainable agriculture in an easy, practical and resourceful way to quickly generate 101 knowledge in topics like  soil health, biodiversity, safe use of agrochemicals, integrated pest management and regenerative agriculture. After we launched the platform in early 2022, we had more than 2,500 users, who are already a faithful group of enthusiastic people, ready to start making small changes in the way they produce food. 

Training, education, and capacity building are not only a private-sector responsibility; everyone related to agrifood chains is convinced that agriculture can be done differently and better every day.  How can we start talking about complex issues, such as carbon sequestration, biodiversity increases or regenerative agricultural problems if we don’t start with the basic concepts around sustainability? Partnering with government, academia and the private sector is the  best way to have an exponential impact. 

#PROAgricultor is a live platform where we launch new courses every quarter. It aims to plant the seed of change among new generations and to create the capability to better face the tremendous challenges that are to come in the food production arena. It’s also how we can further commit to the change we want to see.  

Photo by:   Javier Valdes

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