PepsiCo to Invest in Regenerative Agriculture Research
PepsiCo, Inc. has partnered with the AgMission initiative to issue a request for applications (RFA) to accelerate the adoption of regenerative agriculture practices in corn, wheat, oats, canola, soy, and sugar beets in North America, Europe, South Africa, and Australia.
AgMission and PepsiCo said they will award up to $6 million through this RFA, with individual recipients eligible to receive up to $1.5 million.
The organisations said they are seeking research identifying “climate-smart” and regenerative practices that enhance farmer resilience to extreme weather in specific cropping systems and regions while monitoring for any impact on greenhouse gas emissions. AgMission said it is interested in projects that drive practice adoption across additional lands and document the impact on farm economic and environmental resilience.
“Accelerating climate-smart agriculture adoption is an all-hands-on-deck effort,” said Allison Thomson, program director at AgMission. “We want to see researchers engaging with stakeholder communities to further drive adoption of practices and to include a wide range of farmer demographics in implementation and outreach efforts. This joint RFA in partnership with PepsiCo can help strengthen our understanding of climate-smart practice adoption and accelerate these efforts.”
Margaret Henry, senior director of sustainable agriculture strategy and external engagement at PepsiCo, added, “Keeping farmers farming in the face of climate change and other social and environmental challenges is a critical ambition of our PepsiCo Positive ambitions. To create a resilient food system, we need to partner with farmers and implementers and learn from the research to find impactful and scalable solutions to aid the adoption of climate-smart agriculture practices.”
According to the organisations, submitted proposals should include a comparison of the climate-smart and regenerative practice system to alternative practice systems representing current or historical management in the region. Applicants are not required to secure matching funds for this project. The founding partners of AgMission, the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research and the World Farmers’ Organisation, will be contributing to the match. Pre-proposals are due Feb. 22, AgMission said.
Source: Food Business News
