Cropwise Sustainability App Helps Growers Measure Their Carbon

Maintaining a sustainable farm operation means that growers continue to learn and adapt to a changing agricultural landscape. The Cropwise^™ Sustainability mobile app now incorporates the Cool Farm Tool (CFT) to provide growers with actionable insights to understand and find opportunities to reduce the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of their operation. The integration is rooted in the Sustainable Outcomes in Agriculture (SOA) Standard developed by Syngenta to measure continuous improvement in farm sustainability. CFT offers growers the opportunity to provide up-to-date information on their efforts toward reducing GHG emissions.

CFT, created by the Cool Farm^® Alliance, is a new calculator feature within Cropwise Sustainability that helps a farming operation measure its greenhouse gas emissions and overall sustainability. The tool provides an additional report and analysis that shows the operation’s farm-level carbon emissions and their sources.

Steven Wall, development manager for sustainable and responsible business at Syngenta, says the CFT was chosen because of the long relationship Syngenta has with the Cool Farm Alliance.

“The Cool Farm Tool is well recognized globally. We’re members of the Cool Farm Alliance, and we’ve used it in different facets in different countries for many years,” he says. “Growers can share the data they get from CFT with their buyers, which helps the buyers meet their commitments.”

Jeff Lail, senior data analyst for digital ag solutions at Syngenta, is also a fan of the Cool Farm Alliance.

“The Cool Farm Alliance is based on the International Panel for Climate Change. Its documentation is excellent and publicly available,” he says. “The Alliance was started by academics, and they’re transparent and easy to work with.”

Lower Data Reporting Frustrations

The seamless integration of CFT and Cropwise Sustainability means users don’t have to venture outside of the Cropwise Sustainability app to determine their carbon calculations, which lowers the pain point of data reporting. Lail says the digital ag team sought ways to make the technology as easy to use as possible.

The CFT calculator available in the Cropwise Sustainability app is suitable for a range of growers, including those who are new to on-farm sustainability tracking and who are interested in understanding the GHG emissions associated with their farm. The CFT calculator provides more detailed information about carbon emissions that can be provided to buyers.

“We heard from growers that sellers started asking about their farms’ sustainability impact. That’s the primary reason why we added the tool to Cropwise Sustainability,” Lail says. “Although the CFT incorporated into Cropwise Sustainability is a simplified version of the program, we feel it gives growers a solid estimate of their carbon emissions and helps them evaluate their operations.”

The CFT asks many of the same questions growers already answer as part of the Cropwise Sustainability assessment, making it a simple integration for growers. In total, growers only need to answer about three additional questions.

Syngenta’s digital ag team conducts regular surveys to gauge grower interest in new features and to enhance the user experience, so Cropwise Sustainability will continue to evolve to meet the needs of growers.

“About five years ago, I heard a farmer say, ‘Assessing my sustainability is a business requirement, not an option,’” Lail says. “We seek ways to make this activity as efficient as possible for growers.”