OpenAg ®

Every year, 5.7 million acres of rice paddy acres are deliberately burnt by farmers in Punjab and Haryana as a cheap, quick, and effective method of clearing straw and other residue from mechanically harvested fields in the short window between the harvesting of rice and planting of wheat crop. Despite the downsides to this practice – including greenhouse gas emissions, the degradation of soil nutrients, and the loss of other flora and fauna – it remains widespread.

nurture.farm, our Indian ag-tech subsidiary, has recently led the largest ever program to eliminate stubble burning in India, providing over 25,000 farmers with the tools, technologies, and training they needed to perform regenerative agricultural practices. With over 92% of the 420,000 acreage enrolled saved from being burnt, the program has had a positive impact on the climate, public health outcomes, famer livelihoods, soil health, and rural employment opportunities in India. 

On this episode of UPL Insights, Surabhi Kothari is joined by Dhruv Sawhney (COO and Business Head of nurture.farm) to discuss the impact of the Crop Residue Management Program, and nurture.farm’s exciting plans to generate carbon credits, scale their activities across India, and take the company’s comprehensive solution set to new markets.

And you can catch up with all of our episodes here: https://bit.ly/3gfkH8U

We believe that the solutions to some of the world’s biggest development challenges can be found in some its smallest places. Tiny, potentially problem-solving technologies can be found all around us in symbiosis with each other. Where? In the natural world.

In the fourth episode of the NPP – Natural Plant Protection – Podcast, we examine how we can collaborate with and learn from nature’s own technologies to make our food systems more resilient. Host Dan Sanchez is joined Estelle Moreau, Technical Lead for Biocontrol, NPP and Lara Raemaekers, Global Biocontrol Portfolio Lead, NPP.

Estelle and Lara are building on what we know about viruses and vaccines to make plants stronger and more resilient. NPP’s Vacciplant is made using natural sources to increase disease resistance, plant health, extreme weather resilience and yield. In this way NPP is helping protect farmers, consumers, and the natural world from a growing range of risks.

To learn more about NPP, visit npp.ag   

Rice cultivation is significant for local farming communities, national economies, and for global food security. It is one of the most widely consumed grains in the world – and the staple food crop of more than half of the world’s population, belied upon by over 3.5 billion people for 20% of their daily calories. But what can we learn from the differences and similarities in rice cultivation from different parts of the world?

Joining Surabhi Kothari on this episode of UPL Insights, Roop Basant Nagar (Techno-Commercial Services Lead for UPL in India), Randy Gustaman (Country Technical Development Lead for UPL in Indonesia), and Abdoulaye Kabore (Cocoa Manager for UPL W&C Africa) discuss the technology, training, and seeds changing the game for rice cultivation.

Rice cultivation is significant for local farming communities, for national economies, and for global food security. It is one of the most widely consumed grains in the world – and the staple food crop of more than half of the world’s population, belied upon by over 3.5 billion people for 20% of their daily calories. But what can we learn from the differences and similarities in rice cultivation from different parts of the world?

Joining Surabhi Kothari on this episode of UPL Insights, Roop Basant Nagar (Techno Commercial Services Lead for UPL in India), Randy Gustaman (Country Technical Development Lead for UPL in Indonesia), and Abdoulaye Kabore (Cocoa Manager for UPL W&C Africa) discuss the technology, training, and seeds changing the game for rice cultivation.

We believe the secrets to solving some of the biggest development challenges in the world can be found in some of the smallest, naturally occurring technologies. From seaweed to starch, and biostimulants to bacteria, it’s time to meet this episode’s micro – GOACTIV – the microtechnology unlocking the secrets of seaweed to promote the natural stimulation of crops around the world.

In this second episode of the NPP – Natural Plant Protection – Podcast, host Dan Danchez is joined by Arnaud Labarre, Global Biostimulant Product Manager for UPL, based at the heart of the NPP innovation center in Saint Malo, France, where he has spent 20 years exploring the secret power of seaweed. Seaweed may sometimes be an inconvenience at the beach, but with 14.7 million tonnes produced every year, today we explore the history of seaweed in agriculture and the work that Arnaud and NPP have been doing to incorporate seaweed into modern agricultural practices as was done decades ago?

The growing biosolutions space offers compelling potential across the agricultural landscape. At the farm level, biosolutions work to reduce residues, increase enhance climate change adaptation, and improve overall crop quality, and at the same time biosolutions are a powerful tool in safeguarding our soils and our ecology overall.

On this episode of UPL Insights, Florent Clair is joined by Andre Monteiro, Marketing and Communication Manager, UPL W&C Africa, to talk all things biosolutions and Pronutiva. Andre draws on 6 years of experience developing the biosolutions market and shares stories of the incredible impact that UPL’s work with biosolutions, traditional crop protection, and on-farm training is having with farmers across the region.

To learn more about UPL’s work with Pronutiva, visit https://www.upl-ltd.com/solutions/pronutiva-revolution

Treated like a transformative agri-technology, soil has the potential to feed a booming global population; reverse the impacts of climate change; and even dramatically reduce greenhouses gas emissions. So how can we work with farmers all over the world to ensure that healthier soils lead to a healthier planet? Joining TopSoil to explore this question is Dr. Wayne Honeycutt, President and CEO of the Soil Health Institute. In this episode, Wayne talks us through the SHI’s ‘Soil Targets’ programme, the importance of microscopic livestock, and the recent multi-year collaboration agreement with UPL.

To find out more about SHI, visit: soilhealthinstitute.org/

To find out more about UPL’s work, visit: upl-ltd.com

#CarbonAndSoilHealth #AgTech #soilhealth #soilhealthinstitute #Agricultureandfarming #farmingtechnology #FoodTech #innovation #investing #openag #openinnovation #opencollaboration #openagcenter #Radiclegrowth

UPL has made a commitment to redefining sustainability, and part of this means redefining our relationship with the natural world. We believe that soil health, plant health, and planet health are interlinked, and an important part of the transformation of global food systems.

 To lead this discussion, we’re launching a new podcast mini-series that looks at the untapped potential of soils, and brings together some other soil champions from around the world.

 Our first episode is a special ahead of the full series launch, and looks at the Radicle Carbon & Soil Challenge by UPL. Through the Radicle Carbon and Soil Challenge, UPL has made a commitment to financing and supporting the next generation of soil health ideas, with a top prize of $1 million USD. But don’t just read about it, listen to Carlos Pellicer, UPL’s Global COO, Strategy and Innovation, and Neal Gutterson, CTO of Radicle Growth, and Jonatas Alves, UPL’s Global Portfolio Head, Soil and Seed Health, discuss the challenge now.