Consumer packaged goods (CPG) giant PepsiCo continues to lend a helping hand to farmers trying to adopt sustainable practices, this time working with Farm Credit cooperative Compeer Financial to kickstart their soil conservation journey with an incentive that could pay up to 35% of the price of strip-till equipment.
As part of the partnership, Compeer Financial is leasing out strip-till equipment to farmers through a program called RegenLend, and PepsiCo is paying two years of lease payments once a farmer achieves specific acreage requirements. The Environmental Defense Fund supported the creation of RegenLend, with the Soil and Water Outcomes Fund serving as a operations and management partner.
Strip-tilling differs from traditional tilling in that it minimizes soil disturbance by only removing soil where the seed is planted. Farmers can use strip-tilling to improve water retention and yield, more accurately place fertilizer, and reduce the trips across a field, saving on fuel expenses, Compeer and PepsiCo shared in a press release.
Currently, Soil Warrior Strip Till Systems and strip-till equipment are available for this program.
“We are constantly looking for ways to collaborate with companies across the value chain to support farmers’ efforts in producing a sustainable food supply. The RegenLend program is one example of how we are collaborating on unique programs that help farmers navigate rising costs and weather challenges so together we can build a more resilient food system,” said Caitlin Colegrove, PepsiCo’s sustainable agriculture lead for North America, in a press release.
PepsiCo has “been in the marketplace for a long time, helping their supply chain, and then when we came along, we said, ‘Why don’t we help pair our Farm Credit capital to that and pull through a solution that builds in on ... a very innovative financial product,” Bryan Stanek, managing director of new markets with Compeer Financial, told AgNavigator.
RegenLend de-risks new technologies for farmers
The RegenLend program is designed to address the sustainability adoption curve and help farmers get their hands on new technologies, while helping improve their operation margins, explained Stanek.
“If a farmer can help mitigate risk through tools, it helps them get a pathway to profitability, and that’s in everybody’s best interest,” Stanek elaborated.
The RegenLend program starts with strip-till equipment but will expand into precision planting and seeding technologies and advanced application systems, Compeer shared on its website. Additionally, Compeer wants to provide opportunities beyond row crops as well, Stanek noted.
“We’re starting with cash grain, but it can definitely impact animal agriculture in many forms, with methane, and optimally nitrous oxide, and a lot of other areas, and even water savings. We can tailor this program to help finance sustainability equipment for all that. We’re just choosing to start with row crops to try to make sure we learn from that and bridge outward,” he elaborated.
A snapshot of PepsiCo’s supply chain investments
PepsiCo’s partnership with Compeer follows a string of investments and partnerships the CPG giant has made in its supply chain, geared at helping farmers.
Last month, PepsiCo announced a partnership with commodity company Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC) to help 16 farmers across 25,000 acres produce approximately 26,000 tons of canola annually to adopt regenerative agriculture practices, the companies shared in a press release.
Around the same time as the LDC partnership, PepsiCo deepened a partnership it had with fertilizer producer Fertiberia, which would produce 150,000 tons of green-hydrogen based fertilizer annually by 2030, as AgNavigator reported.
