Forging sustainabilty throughout soy supply chains in Argentina’s gran chaco region
The Land Innovation Fund is supporting CREA and ACSOJA’s teamwork on a sustainable soy project with 100 farmers, covering an area of 250,000 hectares.
With support from the Land Innovation Fund, the Regional Consortium for Agricultural Experimentation (CREA) and the Argentine Soybean Chain Association (ACSOJA) have teamed up to carry out a project for sustainable soy production models in Argentina's Gran Chaco region. Running for 36 months, with at least 100 farmers in an area of about 250,000 hectares, the initiative aims to establish and validate models to intensify ecological farming, maintain or increase farmers' incomes, reduce crop losses, conserve natural areas within farms, restore degraded soils and environments, and apply environmental indicators, particularly soil carbon and biodiversity. The project with CREA and ACSOJA is one of four being implemented with support from the Land Innovation Fund in the Gran Chaco, one of the Fund’s priority biomes, alongside the Cerrado and the Amazon.
The objective of the project, called "Tools for environmental and socio-productive sustainability on soy farms in Argentina's Gran Chaco systems", is to promote sustainable farms on which soy is a fundamental component. "Our hub is soy, which is grown here in rotation with other crops and often integrated with livestock. So, this project focuses on soy as a key component in an entire production system," explains Federico Fritz, CREA’s Project Leader for Environmental Indicators.
The project analyzes data provided by farmers to identify, validate, and disseminate more sustainable agricultural models that comply with current laws, maintain or increase farmers' incomes, and improve environmental indicators, especially carbon.
The initiative also offers incentives to conserve native vegetation areas, restore degraded areas, improve social capital, and involve entire rural communities. It will be implemented in three stages over three years: a diagnosis (2022) to develop the baseline; implementation of previously defined tools and dissemination of initial results (2023); and consolidation of a sustainable production system and identification of critical components (2024).
The CREA/ACSOJA partnership gives the project a market approach, highlighting the importance of pursuing both production and sustainability to keep Argentine farmers competitive on ever more demanding global markets. "It is fundamental that Argentina have a plan to reduce deforestation. Our customers around the world are paying more attention to the need for sustainable agriculture. If we don't align our production with the requirements of international law, we run the risk of being shut out of the market," says the Association’s president Luiz Zubizarreta.
For Juan Carlos Cotella, a farmer and CREA member, the project supported by the Fund adds both value and knowledge for farmers. "Actions like this give us a long-term view and make us reflect on how we can organize to sow and harvest good production and socio-environmental results," he says. For Juan Martin Ficco, a farmer in Salta and also a member of CREA, joint actions expand the work's reach and relevance. "These institutions give us technical grounding, so that along with other farmers, we can chart a consistent path to productive and environmental sustainability," he says.
With this project, the Land Innovation Fund intends to increase the use of training courses and the adoption of tools that can reduce environmental impacts and expand sustainable agricultural practices throughout the soy supply chain, aligning farmers' needs with demands for climate-smart, low-carbon agriculture. "CREA has a history of working as a group, sharing knowledge and skills to improve technical, economic, social and environmental outcomes for farmers, the key players for agricultural transformation in the 21st century and for the projects implemented by the Fund. Only by engaging knowledgeable farmers will we achieve more sustainable production models," says Carlos E. Quintela, director of the Land Innovation Fund. "The partnership between CREA and ACSOJA brings even greater diversity of players and broadens the scope of project outcomes," he concludes.
The initiative with CREA and ACSOJA is one of four now funded by the Land Innovation Fund in the Gran Chaco. Partners from different segments – the third sector, the public sphere, and social organizations – are the institutions that will help lay the groundwork for the Fund's 360º approach to one of Latin America's most environmentally vulnerable areas. "The initiatives stimulate dialogue among multiple voices on the regional sustainability agenda, in the quest to find synergistic solutions for sustainable agricultural development, climate change mitigation, and valuing standing forests in the region," in Quintela’s words.
The Fund's work in the Gran Chaco
As a biome covering approximately 850,000 km2 in areas of Paraguay, Bolivia and Argentina, since the 1990s, and especially since 2000, the Gran Chaco has undergone one of the world's highest rates of deforestation, under increasing pressure to convert natural ecosystems into farmland, especially for soy crops.
The Fund's portfolio for the Gran Chaco includes AACREA, CIARA, the ProYungas Foundation, and Solidaridad Regional, organizations that work in consortium with other important partners in the region. The ProYungas Foundation, dedicated to conservation and sustainable development, partners with the Argentine No-Till Farmers’ Association and Paraguay's Moisés Bertoni Foundation to support the adoption of good agricultural practices and carbon sequestration on five pilot farms in the Gran Chaco biome. The Argentine Regional Consortium of Agricultural Experimentation (AACREA) works with the Argentine Soy Supply Chain Association (ACSOJA) to design sustainable development models together with at least 100 farmers in the country. The Argentine Edible Oil Association (CIARA), in partnership with Peterson-Control Union (PCU) and the Rosario Board of Trade, will implement an integrated platform to monitor and verify all the soy traded in Argentina. And finally, Solidaridad Regional, in partnership with institutions in Bolivia and Paraguay, will map and define sustainable soy criteria and protocols for the region, to comply with international market recommendations.