Syngenta updates public on its sustainable farming goals

The company’s six global commitments, known collectively as the Good Growth Plan, are to make crops more efficient, rescue more farmland from degradation, help biodiversity to flourish, empower smallholders, keep agricultural workers safe and provide fair employment in the sector.  They have been designed to line up with the United Nations sustainable development goals. It works with 3,700 farms across the world – 1,000 of which are ‘reference farms’ where Syngenta protocols are in place, and 2,700 of which are ‘benchmark farms’ to use as a comparator. In 2016, the reference farms outperformed the benchmark farms by 4 per cent.10 million hectares of land have also been targeted to improve fertility. Here, Syngenta works with farmers to improve soil health, offering them agronomy advice and access to other services in partnership with other actors such as local universities and banks.