British beverage firm Diageo has announced three innovative partnerships to facilitate the development of its agriculture sector in Sub-Saharan Africa. The move, under its Diageo Sustainable Solutions programme, involves partnership with AquaSpy, Clean Crop Technologies, and SmartCloud Farming.

These partnerships have the tendency to address, more specifically, problems faced by smallholder farmers: namely, unpredictable weather patterns and a lack of advanced agricultural monitoring. Farmers now have to cope with frequent droughts, floods, and other climate-induced crises where key information on soil and crops has been identified to increase the adaptive capacity of the farmers by best handling their farming practice. This helps them change their farm practice in such a way that it becomes resilient and productive.

1. Competition for Innovation to Drive Agricultural Solutions

With these issues in place, Diageo has organized a competition through the DSS program and looks to realize innovative technologies to actualize change. The company has further committed itself to spending a total of £450,000 in the development of three promising innovations. This comes as the latest initiative by Diageo spending on sustainable solutions through the DSS in the last four years.

However, Diageo's investment surpasses just the provision of funds and encompasses intense resources and time in terms of helping innovators test and develop their technologies. The end game is to find breakthrough solutions that the company will incorporate and ring in its supply chain-the benefits should trickle down to the grassroots farming community in Africa.
Three Transformational Partnerships
Diageo has shortlisted three partners that match its aspirations to leverage the small-scale farmer and enhance sustainability.

2. Three Transformational Partnerships

Diageo has selected three partners that align with its aspirations to empower small-scale farmers and promote sustainability:

  • AquaSpy: An IoT cloud-based platform that ensures real-time information about the conditions of the soil and crops. Monitoring seasonal crop growth, the health of the soil greatly helps to serve the farmer with a better course of action in view of planting and resource management to use water and other resources more effectively.

  • Clean Crop Technologies: The company developed a treatment for seeds that not only improved germination but also increased the effectiveness of seeds under harsh growing conditions, such as overwhelming droughts and floods. This technology is of particular strength and importance for farmers in regions most affected by the negative effects of climate change.

  • SmartCloud Farming: Supports both the farmer and the Diageo supply chain with data-based tools for crop yield forecasting. Knowing the nature of the soils allows a farmer to make more decisions that enhance efficiency for long-term sustainability.

3. Empowering Farmers and Securing Diageo’s Supply Chain

John Cant, Head of Diageo Sustainable Solutions, clarified, "Technology is set to play the critical role in helping smallholder farmers adapt to the growing challenges brought about by a change in climate. This is about availing to these farmers the tools that shall assist in improving yields and diminishing uncertainties, while at the same time ensuring Diageo gets the quality ingredients it requires for its products.".

Pilot projects will first be launched in East Africa, starting with Kenya and Uganda. Successful applications of this technology will see Diageo scale these technologies up to cover its entire supply chain.

4. Scaling Previous Successes

Diageo's DSS program has already succeeded with 14 previous pilots. Probably the most prominent is a joint project with EXXERGY and the Ardagh Group to develop a glass coating that allows thickness to be reduced without losing strength. This means it helps reduce emissions and cuts resource use.

All these continuous efforts towards innovation and sustainability indicate that Diageo is trying to find a solution by which the company will reduce its environmental impact while having a positive impact on society at large as well as its agricultural partners.