Sustainable Agriculture Initiative Nestlé

DaDong Cao and Yaru Liang have worked for Nestlé as milk farmers since the opening of the Shuangcheng factory. Agronomists at Nestlé’s demonstration farm introduced home use of biogas, produced from the effluent of cows, which as a result does not pollute local water sources. “To expand and leverage our own water-related capabilities along the farm to factory supply chain: leveraging our R&D potential, building our best-practice repositories, educating our own agronomists, rolling out knowledge to farmers, supply partners and agriculture development institutions.”

The biogas installations also provide DaDong and Yaru with clean and cheap energy for cooking. In 2000, the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative Nestlé (SAIN) was launched to optimise the supply chain from “farm to factory”. Its objectives are to improve efficiency, risk management and to support sustainable agriculture. To provide a more systematic framework for the many on-going water-related projects in Nestlé’s global supply chain, the company decided in 2006 to make water a central SAIN contribution area to strengthen its own competencies of managing food supply in a water scarce environment. As water becomes increasingly related to supply quality and security as well as to sustain the livelihoods of farmers and communities, this SAIN focus becomes more important. SAIN efforts are building on the efforts of Nestlé agronomists who, for decades, have worked closely with farmers around the globe to provide technical advice and know-how, to foster learning, and transfer best practices on growing agricultural materials.