SAN FRANCISCO, May 30, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Stakeholders are
establishing ethos to bolster environmental, social and governance
(ESG) performance in the smart agriculture industry.
Forward-looking players are enriching the lives of producers and
consumers through sustainable innovation to minimize environmental
footprint. State-of-the-art technologies, including precision
farming, automation, sensors and cloud computing, have become the
next big thing in the agriculture industry. ESG investors are
expected to drive capital flows to help farmers overcome livelihood
and other barriers to adopting environmentally friendly smart
technologies.
Governing bodies and watchdogs have vouched for building
resilience for people, agriculture food system and sustainability
to augment agricultural productivity and incomes. An unprecedented
spike in the global population and shifting diets have spurred the
demand for smart agriculture to manage cropland, forests and
livestock.
A feature story on the World Bank website claimed that acute
food insecurity in 2023 could overtake the food crisis witnessed in
2007-2008. With agriculture being prone to climate change, weather
variability, soaring temperature and invasive crops have elicited
challenges and opportunities for investors and other stakeholders.
The World Bank infers that agriculture produces around 19–29% of
total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Learn more about the practices & strategies being
implemented by industry participants from the Smart Agriculture
Industry ESG Thematic Report, 2023, published by Astra ESG
Solutions
Environmental Perspective
The agriculture sector is witnessing a seismic shift with an
increased focus on minimizing emissions, preventing deforestation
and bolstering productivity. Climate-smart agriculture has become
paramount to avoid or reduce GHG emissions, reflecting expectations
from stakeholders that businesses should deliver not only profits
& revenue but also ESG performance. Extreme weather events
showed the repercussions of climate change on agriculture.
Farms are expected to count on bespoke solutions to foster their
sustainability strategies. For instance, Argus Controls uses a
proprietary control algorithm to automate the growing process and
forecast specific needs, including watering, lighting and feeding
cycles. With sustainable production gaining a stronghold, the North
American cannabis cultivation and manufacturing experts unveiled
Sustainable Cannabis Coalition (SCC) in January 2021 to propel sustainability practices
in the cannabis industry.
Social Perspective
Farmers and investors are responding to the need for sustainable
agricultural practices to underpin economic and nutrition
livelihoods, employee safety & well-being and reinforce
diversity, equity and inclusion. AGCO Corporation initiated the
FOCUS 2.0 program with a 40-step blueprint to create a robust
safety culture. It reduced its total case incident rate (TCIR) by
14% in 2022 vis-à-vis the preceding year, the company mentioned in
the 2022 Sustainability Report.
The American agricultural machinery manufacturer underscored
employee engagement through programs, including Voices.
Predominantly in 2022, almost 20,000 employees shared their voices
in the annual Voices Survey. The company noted that its engagement
score stood at 69% and is on course to take the tally to the 75%
target by 2025. The U.S.-based company collaborated with the Faça
Um Bem Incrível" (Make a Great Good) social project in Brazil that redirects fresh produce which
would otherwise go to waste. The initiative fostered over 150 rural
workers and 20 local food producers.
Is your business one of participants to the Smart Agriculture
Industry? Contact us for focused consultation around ESG Investing,
and help you build sustainable business practices
Governance Perspective
The need for the Board to provide sustainability strategy, goals
and policies has fueled the significance of sound governance,
transparency, ethics & compliance, diversity and good corporate
behavior. For instance, Cargill formed an ESG Committee to
underscore governance and accountability. It has teamed up with the
World Economic Forum, the World Business Council for Sustainable
Development (WBCSD) and Tropical Forest Alliance (TFA) to undergird
operation and stakeholders' engagement.
The company has strengthened its ethics & compliance
portfolio to set a foundation for sustainable growth. Cargill
completed over 80,000 hours of mandatory online compliance training
in 2022 on bribery and corruption, monitoring government donations
& gifts and entertainment expenses. In January 2022, the company celebrated Ethics Week
to foster employee ethics.
ESG investors expect farmers to overcome hurdles to adopt smart
farming strategies. Accordingly, organic and inorganic strategies
will be pronounced in the near terms. For instance, farmers in
Sri Lanka augmented land under
irrigation by 15% during the dry season, largely due to their
training in the alternate wetting and drying (AWD) techniques.
These dynamics validate Grand View Research's valuation of the
global smart agriculture market at USD 14.44
billion in 2021 which could witness a double-digit CAGR of
10.8% between 2022 and 2030.
Browse more ESG Thematic Reports from the Consumer Sector,
published by Astra - ESG Solutions
About Astra – ESG Solutions by Grand View Research
Astra is the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) arm of
Grand View Research Inc. - a global market research publishing
& management consulting firm.
Astra offers comprehensive ESG thematic assessment & scores
across diverse impact & socially responsible investment topics,
including both public and private companies along with intuitive
dashboards. Our ESG solutions are powered by robust fundamental
& alternative information. Astra specializes in consulting
services that equip corporates and the investment community with
the in-depth ESG research and actionable insight they need to
support their bottom lines and their values. We have supported our
clients across diverse ESG consulting projects & advisory
services, including climate strategies & assessment, ESG
benchmarking, stakeholder engagement programs, active ownership,
developing ESG investment strategies, ESG data services, build
corporate sustainability reports. Astra team includes a pool of
industry experts and ESG enthusiasts who possess extensive end-end
ESG research and consulting experience at a global level.
For more ESG Thematic reports, please Visit - Astra
ESG Solutions, powered by Grand View Research
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