Nestlé launched a program for the introduction of soil regeneration agriculture in Western Transdanubia

(Photo: Pixabay)

As the world’s largest food company, Nestlé considers it its responsibility to transform food production and supply chains in such a way as to contribute to the renewal of the planet’s natural resources and a more sustainable diet for consumers. – The effects of climate change, for example the increasingly frequent and prolonged droughts, pose a huge challenge to producers of raw materials for the food industry; deteriorating soil quality, as well as factors such as the threatening shortage of fertilizers or rising raw material prices. – said Anna Hőgyész, head of sustainability at Nestlé Hungária.

60 percent of the 140,000 tons of raw material delivered to Nestlé Purina’s Büki factory is grain purchased from Hungarian farmers

That is why the business division initiated the Landscape Enterprise Networks (LENs) program established in the United Kingdom by the consulting firm 3Keel and already operating successfully there, to be launched in Hungary for the first time in the region. According to the plans, the first phase of LENs Hungary, launched in 2022, will contribute more than 200,000 euros and the implementation of nature-based solutions in three farms growing different grains, on about 2,000 hectares, to the spread of soil renewal land use practices, improving the resilience of the affected areas and supply chains to the Funded by Nestlé.

The consultancy firm Preferred By Nature is responsible for the implementation of the initiative here

One of the world’s leading agricultural companies, Syngenta, is involved in measuring the results of the interventions and preparing and validating the measurement methodology. The program is also supported by the Ministry of Agriculture, as it highlights important issues for domestic agriculture as well. – Business solutions like this support government measures aimed at increasing the competitiveness of agriculture, while contributing to responses to the challenges of climate change, creating the conditions for efficient food production, and the sustainable use of finite natural resources. emphasized dr. Anikó Juhász, Deputy State Secretary responsible for agriculture.

By 2025, Nestlé will source a fifth of its key raw materials, and half of them five years later, from areas cultivated with soil renewal methods

Thanks to regenerative agriculture, the production of raw materials for the food industry puts less of a burden on the environment, but at the same time can contribute to the renewal of entire landscape units. – Thanks to the interventions, the water retention and carbon sequestration capacity of the soil increases, the biological diversity, the water quality improves, but the level of soil erosion and the carbon emissions resulting from cultivation decrease. Within the framework of the LENs Hungary program, we also support the establishment of a network of farms in order to directly share experiences and knowledge related to soil renewal agriculture. – said Bálint Lukács, Preferred by Nature’s Hungarian LENs project manager.