Scaling-up Efforts in Agriculture
Nestlé will work with farmers in its direct supply chain to improve the state of water management. An evaluation of Nestlé’s current water-related competencies and opportunities for impact identified several areas where additional efforts could contribute to better water management in agriculture and surrounding communities. 
Nestlé agronomists in Talwandi Rai, India, educate farmers on water management on their dairy farms, which provide fresh milk to Nestlé’s Moga factory
Strengthen capacity - Key staff from Nestlé headquarters and from markets will be trained on water management around Nestlé’s direct supply chain, raising awareness amongst Nestlé agronomists on the topic of "sustainable water usage in agriculture". This key staff of "agricultural water experts" will train other Nestlé agronomists and also support the water-related Nestlé initiatives in their markets. Contacts will be established with relevant research institutions, NGOs and consultants in order to use their expertise in training Nestlé staff, awareness creation amongst stakeholders, and advising markets on specific problems and projects.
Field studies –Nestlé agronomists will evaluate the state of water usage in Nestlé’s direct supply chain from different perspectives including local water “poverty” levels, water consumption, types of irrigation, waste water production, post-harvesting methods, spring management and others. This assessment will enable better monitoring of impact and identification of priority areas for structuring projects and allocating resources.
Different Nestlé markets sourcing agricultural raw materials from farmers have embarked on various initiatives to improve water management. These initiatives are important and have proven successful. However, so far there has been too little exchange of related information between markets. In order to collect the knowledge already available in some Nestlé markets and to make it available throughout the company, Nestlé’s agricultural department will take the following approach:
- Collect information about existing Nestlé and industry initiatives, highlighting the most advanced practices and indicators elaborated and continuously updated with experiences of different markets.
- Summarise and arrange the information in a “Advanced Water Practice Repository” accessible to all relevant Nestlé staff;
- Disseminate the know-how through case examples, training, and workshops;
- Advance water practices as far as applicable in the Nestlé Farm Assurance Manuals implemented in the different markets.
- Champion an industry-wide initiative on water and agriculture from within the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) to improve water efficiencies on a large scale, creating opportunity for all companies.
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In the lab and greenhouses of R&D Tours, plant scientists are developing new varieties and propagation tools for high yielding and quality plants which may also be screened for better survival and recovery under drought conditions In common with many tropical crops, coffee and cocoa are considered “orphan crops” from an R&D perspective. Because money is earned at the product and not at the seed level and because they are perennial species, current investments in innovation of planting material are very limited. Coffee and cocoa plants were traditionally selected by a few public Institutions to optimise yield, but not water-related characteristics. Many varieties are vulnerable to even short periods of drought. The resulting loss of yield is threatening not only overall raw material supplies but also the livelihoods of thousands of farmers. In the worst case, water-sensitive plants may not survive prolonged droughts (or produce a very poor crop for 1-2 years before recovering) and many farmers could not afford the investments in time and money required to replant trees (or survive without any crop during the time for recovery).
Nestlé R&D employs a unique set of competencies to create new momentum in raw material innovation of coffee and cocoa. Advanced competencies in molecular and plant biology as well as propagation techniques enable Nestlé R&D to rapidly drive down the time “from science to field.” 
Two new initiatives by Nestlé R&D aim to overcome the lack of innovation in coffee and cocoa:
- employ conventional selection and breeding to identify coffee plants that could reduce the amount of water needed to produce high yield and high quality produce. For more, click here
- further develop and share propagation capabilities to help farmers grow cocoa plants that are better adapted to an environment of water scarcity than their traditional counterpart from rooted cutting or grafting. For more, click here.
Case history: Coffee Project
Case history: Cocoa Propagation Project
Many rural properties and communities have springs and groundwater wells at their disposal for human, animal and crop usage. But in many countries, they are not adequately protected from contamination, such as livestock, wildlife, crop fields, forestry activities, septic systems and human activities (for example, fuel tanks, fertilisers, or pesticides), located in the neighbourhood of the spring outlet, which is called the “eye”. Some springs are in danger of falling dry if their water catchment areas are not appropriately protected. 
Fire prevention protects spring water flows by avoiding soil erosion. Since 1998, the Nestlé Sustainable Maintenance Plan near the Santa Maria source has increased forest coverage with a 75% survival of four new pine species, restored 60 hectares of natural forest, and trained local fi re brigades
Nestlé’s Sustainable Agriculture Initiative will add a new module around the theme of protecting water supply springs, groundwater and wells at farm and community levels. The spring protection initiative will fit different protective structures that can be easily built up when spring water “eyes” are identified, e.g. spring boxes, seepage spring preservation structures, horizontal wells, or fencing.
However, technical spring protection measures alone do not yet ensure effective protection of this important water resource. Therefore spring protection will be accompanied by education programmes for farmers, school children, and villagers on preventing contamination, protecting water catchment areas, and developing afforestation programmes in order to prevent springs from becoming dry.
Nestlé has promoted dialogue with stakeholders on water issues in a number of ways. Moving forward in 2007, Nestlé intends to stage and sponsor a range of public forums to discuss solutions to the problem of clean water, particularly in the area of water governance, which is recognised as a critical factor in solving our water problems.
The investments necessary to establish adequate springs make it imperative that these waters are not threatened by overuse beyond natural replenishment rates. Increasing sophistication in equipment and techniques is required to further improve water-use efficiencies as well as to help identify and eliminate a growing number of pollutants from human activities that can be found in water.
Despite this focus on sustainable water management, Nestlé is sometimes faced with distrust in its intentions by local communities. Information on recent examples of allegations of unsustainable use of water against Nestlé’s Pure Life plants in San Lourenco, Brazil and Lahore, Pakistan can be found on Nestlé’s website at: Nestlé CSR concept GB (PDF, 5 Mb)Return to top