Global agribusiness giant Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC) is working in partnership with global conservation organisation The Nature Conservancy (TNC) to promote regenerative agriculture and deforestation-free (DCF) production.
The collaboration would prioritise on-the-ground projects in grains, oilseeds, coffee and cotton value chains in North and South America, LDC said on 12 January.
As part of the collaboration, LDC said the two companies would encourage practices that improved soil health, restore aquifers, promote biodiversity and mitigate climate change.
“To see real change, the full value chain needs to be engaged – from farmers to traders to retailers. We look forward to scaling practices [LDC has already taken] to eliminate deforestation and habitat conversion from commodity production on a global scale. Collective action in this sector is imperative to unlock benefits for both people and nature,” TNC CEO Jennifer Morris said.
LDC said the collaboration built on its existing commitment to eliminate deforestation and conversion of native vegetation of high conservation value for agricultural purposes from its supply chains.
“This collaboration with LDC will help us to leverage the whole sector to move more quickly on this vital area for climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation,” David Cleary, TNC’s director of Global Agriculture and a member of LDC’s Environment Committee, said.
Global and cross-commodity in nature, the collaboration would initially focus on grains and oilseeds value chains, as well as coffee and cotton.
The companies would work together to implement LDC’s regenerative agriculture strategy with an initial focus on a selected large-scale, strategic efforts in Argentina, Brazil, Canada and the USA, including joint assessments of ongoing regenerative agriculture project, LDC said.
In addition, the collaboration would expand a longstanding partnership between TNC and LDC around DCF production to support the implementation of LDC’s global DCF commitment, with a focus on developing incentive mechanisms to farmers, and improving monitoring of and reporting on implementation.
“TNC brings a science-based approach and decades of experience in building and scaling resilient food systems,” LDC head of regenerative agriculture Axelle Bodoy said.
LDC’s regenerative agriculture plan targets a minimum of approximately 1.2M ha by 2030 and would involve around 30,000 farmers in selected commodity supply chains.
