Syngenta Good Growth Plan 2017 Results: strong growth in crop yields and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions
Basel, Switzerland
- Global average yield up 10.9 percent on reference farms, with smallholders up 21.6 percent
- Greenhouse gas emissions reduced by 14 percent per unit produced
- Pesticide use down 14.2 percent per unit produced
- 25 million farmers trained in safe use, including 17.5 million smallholders
Syngenta is making strong progress with The Good Growth Plan in increasing crop yields while using precious resources more efficiently, safely and sustainably. This is demonstrated by the program’s fourth-year results, published today.
The Good Growth Plan, which consists of six commitments to support sustainable growth in agricultural production and the development of rural communities – sets ambitious targets for delivery by 2020. To achieve these goals, farmers are working with Syngenta field experts to share know-how and trial new solutions on over 1,400 reference farms, across 22 crops, in 41 countries.
In 2017, reference farms showed an average 10.9 percent increase in output per hectare, compared with the 2014 baseline. This was almost 50 percent higher than the increase achieved on the benchmark farms used for comparison. Smallholder reference farms are showing particularly strong increases in land productivity – up 21.6 percent compared with 5.1 percent for their benchmark counterparts.
By improving crop yields per hectare, the majority of farms used pesticides, fertilizers and other inputs more efficiently in 2017. Pesticide efficiency – measuring the amount applied per kilogram of crop produced – has improved by 14.2 percent since 2014 on reference farms. This is almost three times the improvement on benchmark farms.
Analysis of greenhouse gas (GHG) footprints from our reference farms shows a 14 percent reduction in GHG emissions per unit produced since 2014.
Syngenta Chief Executive Officer, Erik Fyrwald, said: “More than ever we depend on farmers to sustainably increase their production, ensuring the supply of safe and affordable food while minimizing the impact that agriculture has on the environment. The Good Growth Plan is central to this. It puts sustainability center stage in the way we do business, and aligns closely with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
"We have achieved a great deal in the last four years but we must do more. We will keep improving The Good Growth Plan to go beyond the current model of agriculture and build what we learn into our commercial offer. We’re also building a body of evidence that it delivers real, measurable value for growers and society at large. The data and insights that we are gaining and sharing are fueling a growing number of partnerships – with governments, academia, NGOs and businesses. These add further value to our efforts and guide the continuing evolution and development of The Good Growth Plan itself."
2017 progress is outlined below. For more information, please visit www.goodgrowthplan.com or www.data.syngenta.com
About Syngenta
Syngenta is a leading agriculture company helping to improve global food security by enabling millions of farmers to make better use of available resources. Through world class science and innovative crop solutions, our 28,000 people in over 90 countries are working to transform how crops are grown. We are committed to rescuing land from degradation, enhancing biodiversity and revitalizing rural communities. To learn more visit www.syngenta.com and www.goodgrowthplan.com. Follow us on Twitter® at www.twitter.com/Syngenta.
Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This document contains forward-looking statements, which can be identified by terminology such as ‘expect’, ‘would’, ‘will’, ‘potential’, ‘plans’, ‘prospects’, ‘estimated’, ‘aiming’, ‘on track’ and similar expressions. Such statements may be subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to differ materially from these statements. For Syngenta, such risks and uncertainties include risks relating to legal proceedings, regulatory approvals, new product development, increasing competition, customer credit risk, general economic and market conditions, compliance and remediation, intellectual property rights, implementation of organizational changes, impairment of intangible assets, consumer perceptions of genetically modified crops and organisms or crop protection chemicals, climatic variations, fluctuations in exchange rates and/or commodity prices, single source supply arrangements, political uncertainty, natural disasters, and breaches of data security or other disruptions of information technology. Syngenta assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect actual results, changed assumptions or other factors.
Good Growth Plan: 2017 progress update
| The commitments we’ve made. By 2020 we will… | Our progress in 2017 |
|---|---|
| Make crops more efficient: Increase average productivity of the world’s major crops by 20 percent without using more land, water or inputs. |
Land productivity on 1,459 reference farms up 10.9 percent, vs 7.3 percent on 2,630 benchmark farms. Smallholder productivity up 21.6 percent on reference farms, vs 5.1 percent on benchmark farms (all figures compared with 2014 baseline). |
| Rescue more farmland: Improve the fertility of 10 million hectares of farmland on the brink of degradation. |
Benefited area increased by over 70 percent in 2017, to a total of 7.4 million hectares. Well on track to achieve our goal of 10 million hectares by 2020. |
| Help biodiversity flourish: Enhance biodiversity on 5 million hectares of farmland. |
Benefited hectares increased by 0.7 million to total 5.6 million hectares – well beyond our 2020 target of 5.0 million. We have now implemented 229 projects in 37 countries and will keep investing to drive further improvement. |
| Empower smallholders: Reach 20 million smallholders and enable them to increase productivity by 50 percent. |
We calculate the number of smallholders reached each year using sales data. For 2017 the calculated total fell by 2.7 million to 13.9 million: the main factor was a sharp drop in corn acreage in China, where corn is our principal crop. This was disappointing when our reference smallholders are performing so well – with yields increasing over four times faster than the benchmark group between 2014 and 2017. |
| Help people stay safe: Train 20 million farm workers on labor safety, especially in developing countries. |
With another 8.2 million people trained in 2017, we moved well past the 20 million target we set for 2020. Since 2014, we have reached 25.5 million people with safety training and safe-use awareness-raising initiatives. Some 70 percent of those we train on safe use are smallholders. |
| Look after every worker: Strive for fair labor conditions throughout our entire supply chain network. |
In 2017, our Fair Labor Program covered 86 percent of our seed supply farms. We extended GLOBALG.A.P. certification to 90 percent of our flower farms, and 32 percent were undergoing G.R.A.S.P. assessment. In our chemicals supply chain, our Supplier Sustainability Program now covers 90 percent of suppliers in material risk categories. |
