Data-Driven Collaboration Weaves Together Retailer, Farmers, and Ingredients Company
A pilot program facilitated by Truterra with the support of retail partner Central Valley Ag and financed by Corbion, a biobased ingredients company, is working with farmers to use the Truterrra Insights Engine to help increase conservation practices on corn and soybean acres in Corbion's sourcing regions.
This is a three-year program through the corn/soybean rotation for farmers to adopt practice changes such as cover crops and more.
“This program got started because there is a lot of interest today in making a practice change with the farmer–a lot of consumer packaged goods companies have that interest,” says Mariah Murphy with Truterra. “Corbion wants to influence that change. But they recognize the practicality for farmers to invest in a change and understand it can be a challenge for farmers to try something.”
To serve as trusted advisers and bridges between the end customer and farmer, the team at CVA offers consultations and runs through hypothetical scenarios for each field with the farmers. This is using the Truterra Insights Engine.
“This is an opportunity for CVA to develop a presence in sustainability so we can bring additional value and services,” says Aaron Sindelar, Ph.D., Sustainability Lead, CVA. “We are seeing a lot of interest from growers, but the first hurdle is helping them build their knowledge of these practices. It’s a great fit for growers to do a mini research trial and see how they fit.”
The technology tools enabling this program are designed to instill trust as practices are modified.
“There’s a stigma with trials that if farmers adopt a conservation practice, they’ll lose money. But with this program, we mitigate the risk,” Murphy says.
The Truterra Insights Engine is progressing those conversations with “analysis on the fly,” says Sindelar.
“We are able to go through the field-by-field hypotheticals with farmers and have deeper discussions and change variables right in front of us,” he says. “It’s immensely critical to run through the hypothetical. In the past with a conservation practice, it could be that a grower didn’t make the proper adjustments to find success with a practice. But now our ultimate hope is that we demonstrate effectiveness and extend that across the operations.”
Sindelar says it is intriguing that growers are excited to know who their partner is on the other side of the table, and knowing that Corbion is a partner in this program satisfies a natural curiosity for them. He shares ag retailers need to be adaptive.
“Growers are looking to us for answers and information. We need to fill every need for their operation’s future,” Sindelar says. “It’s not only the farmer making a commitment in this program to do the trials, it’s also CVA making the commitment to help the farmer with the consultation.”
This is the first year for the program, which was intentionally designed to focus with one retailer in one specific area to start.
“First and early on, we’ve learned our ag retailers are positioned really well when it comes to putting these programs on the ground. We appreciate CVA’s effort to find the farmers and get this launched,” Murphy says. “Particularly with this program with Corbion, we are starting smaller so we can iron out all of the scientific and agronomic pieces. We want to make sure before we get to the next phase, we can do it flawlessly.”
The walking before running principle is one Murphy says is very important as farmers are looking to quantify practice changes in terms of sustainability and profitability.
