Sustainability is a crucial concept in the current environment to ensure holistic prosperity and development for future generations. A sustainable agricultural value chain applies holistic environmental, economic, social, and legal concerns to a supply chain to conserve and enhance the resource base.
Amid the face of the pandemic, consumer demand has shifted towards ethically sourced and traceable ingredients, which are only possible through sustainable agriculture. In turn, it also promotes economic stability for farmers, allowing them to lead a better quality of life.
Sustainable agriculture methods
A sustainable agricultural value chain heavily differs from industrial agriculture that is prevalent in the current market. It involves the use of methods like crop rotation, soil enrichment, cover crops, and natural pest management to reduce the dependence on chemicals and equipment that harm the environment.
Permaculture, a viable and more efficient food production system, designs techniques of smart farming to reduce waste in a crop cycle. It focuses on the use of perennial crops that work together, similar to how plants would function in a natural ecosystem.
Agri-tech solutions for sustainable value chains
In creating a sustainable agricultural value chain, the supply chain manager must take into consideration various factors like carbon emissions and footprint, health and safety, labour conditions, and waste.
Agri-tech solutions improve visibility into a supply chain, allowing consumers and authorities alike to track the quality of ingredients and ensure that they are sourced ethically. With complete access to the supply chain, food manufacturers can easily react to safety concerns and mitigate the risks by solving the points of concern. Moreover, it can also help farmers in adopting better crop management practices by enabling them with features like GPS tracking, farm digitisation, and machine learning.
