THE GOOD GROWTH PLAN FARM NETWORK – MONITORING RESOURCE EFFICIENCY OF CROP PRODUCTION SYSTEMS

The FAO estimates that food supplies need to increase by 70% to feed a growing population of 9 billion people by 2050. The changes in agricultural practices required to grow more tend to exert higher demand on resources and put eco-system services at risk of degradation. Syngenta, a global company selling agrochemicals and seeds, invests in research and development of agricultural innovations that help farmers produce more with less. In 2013, Syngenta launched The Good Growth Plan and set global targets to be met by 2020 with regard to resource efficiency and other indicators. A global monitoring and evaluation system was set up to track progress on these targets. To measure improvements of farm resource efficiency, a global network of over 3500 farms in 41 countries was established. The network covers 23 different crops in different market segments, including smallholder farms in developing countries. The sample includes reference and benchmark farms. While reference farms are real customers selected by Syngenta, benchmark farms were randomly selected within the same market segments. In 2014, the baseline farm surveys were carried out by Market Probe, an independent agricultural market research company. Data on resource efficiency will be collected annually until 2020. With more years of data available, panel techniques and time series analysis will be used to assess trends and determinants of resource efficiency.