1000 Farmers Endless Prosperity Program

1000 Farmers Endless Prosperity Program

According to the data of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the world population is expected to reach 10 billion by 2050. That means nourishing 10 billion people. This situation increases the pressure on resources, environment and climate. To ensure the sustainability of food matters in order to improve the quality of life of today and future generations.

With this perspective, as Cargill, we have determined our global sustainability approach in line with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals in order to nourishing the world in a safe, responsible and sustainable way more than 155 years:

• Climate: We think that climate change is the most important problem of the food ecosystem. We are committed to reducing emissions from our extended supply chain by 30% per ton of product by 2030.
• Land & Water: We are committed to achieving sustainable water management in our operations and all priority watersheds and transforming our agricultural supply chains to be deforestation-free by 2030.
• People: In addition to our sensitivity to human rights, we are working with the goal of achieving full gender parity across corporate leadership by 2030. We are also committed to improving the livehoods of 10 million farmers by 2030 through training in sustainable agriculture practices and better across the markets.

As a reflection of this global vision, we implemented our "1000 Farmers Endless Prosperity" program in 2019 for a sustainable future in Turkey, where we have been operating for more than 60 years.

With our understanding of corporate social responsibility, we set out to support our farmers, who are the first link of the value chain in production, and to increase their productivity and welfare. We continue to work shoulder to shoulder with our farmers for an efficient and profitable future, and we expand the scope of the program by reaching 1000 new corn, sunflower and canola farmers every year.

At the end of 2021, we have reached an area of ​​40 thousand hectares, which corresponds to 80 thousand football fields. We support our farmers in many areas such as field-specific consultancy service, field support, access to digital agricultural tools, digital soil analysis, meteorology, irrigation and forecasting station, and field health monitoring via satellite with “support line” and “online communication groups”. We organize trainings for our farmers on technical financial literacy, licensed warehousing, ELUS, digital agriculture market, occupational health and safety in the field. By the end of 2021, we provided more than 60 hours of in-class and online training.

Program of firsts

• We are the widest corporate social responsibility program that provides regular, continuous, 24/7 consultancy to the largest number of farmers in Turkey.
• We are the first and only food and agriculture program in Turkey to calculate the social return on investment (SROI).
• The Progress Report of our program, published in 2021, is the first to include more than 30 stakeholder opinions.
• We are the first and only food and agriculture program that conducts regular research on farmers.
• We are the first program to implement the "Life Cycle Assessment", a first in Turkey, in cooperation with ITUNOVA.
• With more than 30 national and international awards, we are perhaps one of the most awarded programs in the world among social responsibility programs for farmers.
• In addition, we are the first program to carry out carbon emission and sequestration studies with the Cool Farm Tool since 2022 in Turkey.

Efficient and profitable tomorrow

With the “1000 Farmers Endless Prosperity” that supports social and digital transformation in the field, we reached nearly 4 thousand farmers in 12 provinces who are corn, sunflower and canola producers in 2021.

When we started our program, our goal was 12% efficiency. At the end of 2019, our farmers, who followed all the recommendations and benefited from digital agricultural tools, achieved a yield increase of up to 21 percent. In 2020, this rate reached 26 percent, and in 2021, despite the drought due to climate change, our farmers achieved a yield increase of up to 23 percent.

Contribution to the local community

We use the "Social Value Principles" and "Social Return of Investment" (SROI) approach of the internationally recognized "Social Value International" institution to understand and define the social impact of “1000 Farmers Endless Prosperity”

Every 1 TL investment in “1000 Farmers Endless Prosperity” provided a social return of 2.53 TL in 2019 and 2.78 TL in 2020. In 2021, every 1 TL investment made has a social return of 3.03 TL.

The change created by the program on farmers in 2021 is 80% in financial literacy, %88 in agricultural know-how, %81 in data-based business conduct, %80 in solidarity and %78 in environmental awareness.

Sustainability management in the field

Sustainable farming practices in the field not only conserve resources, but also improve while producing. We are working with our valuable stakeholders on sustainable agricultural practices within the scope of “1000 Farmers Endless Prosperity”

In 2020, we implemented the "Zero Waste in the Field" project in cooperation with ITUNOVA Technology Transfer Office and Turkish Plastics Industrialists Research, Development and Education Foundation (PAGEV). With the project, we have recycled nearly 3 tons of plastic waste so far and brought it into the economy. We prevented 117 kg of greenhouse gas emissions, and achieved 16 thousand 513 kWh energy savings.

In 2021, we contributed to recycling by delivering plastic waste containers to municipalities in Konya and Karaman regions.

Again in 2021, we implemented the "Life Cycle Assessment", a first in Turkey, in cooperation with ITUNOVA. Because monitoring and evaluation of indicators such as soil health, biodiversity and ecosystem function (water, carbon, nitrogen, mineral cycles, energy flow and community dynamics) is an integral part of the process. With this awareness, we made an environmental impact assessment of corn in fields of different sizes in Konya and Karaman, which we chose as the pilot regions.

Sustainability future with the '1000 Farmers Endless Prosperity'

With the “1000 Farmers Endless Prosperity”, we create added value for the development of farmers and local development for 11 purposes within the framework of the 17-item Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the United Nations in 2015.

Our goal is to reach more farmers, as it was on the first day of our program. By including Bursa and Kocaeli in the program in the 2022 season, we reached more than 4 thousand farmers in 14 provinces.

We carried out the "Life Cycle Evaluation" study of corn in 2022, which we started in 2021 with ITUNOVA Technology Transfer Office, for sunflower and canola in the new season.

We conducted our first pilot study to monitor greenhouse gas emissions in the field. Working with an international platform, the Cool Fam Tool, we initiated the "Carbon Footprint" calculations in accordance with the standards. We will continue to work for sustainable production in the field by conducting trainings and one-to-one practices with our farmers for the reduction of "Carbon Footprint".

You can find all detailed information about our program on our website www.1000ciftci1000bereket.com