Key Takeaways:
- Strategic Collaboration: Varda has partnered with TrueFootprint to assist farmers with digital transformation and adherence to the upcoming EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR).
- Innovative Solutions: Varda’s Global FieldID’s integration with TrueFootprint’s FieldApp will provide farmers with essential digital tools for farm mapping and crop production tracking.
- Regulatory Compliance: This partnership aims to simplify compliance with EUDR by ensuring that crop production is not contributing to deforestation.
- Support for Smallholders: The initiative particularly targets smallholder farmers, who are most at risk from the new regulation due to their limited digital capabilities.
Introduction
Varda, an agtech data service provider founded by global nitrogen fertilizer leader Yara, has announced a partnership with TrueFootprint, a platform aimed at transforming value chains through sustainability and regenerative agriculture practices. This collaboration is designed to support farmers in their digital transformation efforts and help them comply with the stringent EU Deforestation Regulation set to be implemented later this year.
Solutions for Compliance and Efficiency
Global FieldID and FieldApp Integration
Varda’s Global FieldID solution offers a geospatial reference framework that will be integrated with TrueFootprint’s FieldApp platform. This integration facilitates the digital mapping of farmland, allowing farmers to easily track and verify crop production locations with respect to forest conservation efforts required under EUDR.
Fredrik Galtung, CEO of TrueFootprint, detailed the benefits of the integration: “By integrating Varda’s Global FieldID into our FieldApp platform, we can help users save time and resources when mapping out their fields, facilitating collaborative data sharing with key stakeholders and providing evidence of EUDR compliance.”
Targeted Assistance to Smallholder Farmers
The EUDR poses a significant challenge for smallholder farmers, requiring them to provide precise geographic coordinates for their farming activities to ensure their crops are not linked to deforestation activities. “The Global FieldID will help onboard many more farmers faster and make it easier for food companies, traders, and regulators to verify that farmer cooperatives comply with deforestation regulations,” Galtung added.
Challenges and Opportunities
Technological Gaps
Davide Ceper, CEO of Varda, commented on the challenges faced by smallholder farmers: “Large producers are well prepared and organized to supply the necessary information to validate their practices. However, smallholder farmers in some countries lack the technological ‘know-how’ to do the same. This could lead to some farmers being forced out of business, which would further impact deforestation levels in these areas as they lack alternatives.”
Solution and Support
The collaboration between Varda and TrueFootprint is set to provide these farmers with the necessary digital tools to effectively map their farmland, identify issues, and seamlessly share data with stakeholders, ensuring compliance with the upcoming regulations. This support is crucial not only for maintaining their livelihoods but also for preventing further deforestation.
Varda Latest News
Discover the company profile here.
Partners With Slow Philosophy (2024/02/21)
Varda and Slow Philosophy have partnered to merge Varda’s Global FieldID™ with Slow Philosophy’s Agroscoring tool to provide enhanced insights into agricultural efficiency. This will empower farmers and stakeholders with crucial insights into their fields, including detailed weather information and other variables that monitor carbon neutrality and geolocation factors. The partnership aims to promote sustainable farming practices and expand regenerative agriculture, contributing to a virtuous cycle of collaboration and success in the agricultural sector.
Varda Forges Partnership With Pessl Instruments (2023/12/18)
Varda, founded by Yara, partners with Pessl Instruments to integrate its Global FieldID™ with the METOS® portfolio, enhancing agricultural transparency and collaboration. This strategic collaboration aims to provide farmers with localized, data-driven insights for sustainable agriculture, utilizing advanced technologies like weather stations and AI-powered insect traps. The partnership underscores a shared commitment to optimizing agricultural practices, reducing environmental impact, and advancing smart farming technologies for a nature-positive food system.
Varda and Ever.Ag Partner (2023/11/20)
Varda, an agtech startup founded by Yara, has partnered significantly with Ever.Ag, a leading service provider in the agricultural technology sector, to usher in a new era of enhanced transparency and efficiency in food supply chains. The collaboration centers around integrating Varda’s Global FieldID™ (GFID) into Ever.Ag’s FieldAlytics system, which is known for optimizing agronomy, field logistics, and farm planning. Incorporating GFID promises to revolutionize the tracking of produce from planting to processing, improving traceability and consumer trust. Davide Ceper, CEO at Varda, and Ben Sloan, VP of Product and Strategy for Digital Agronomy at Ever.Ag, emphasize the transformative potential and consumer demand for transparency that GFID addresses. The partnership is set to launch in December 2023, integrating GFID across FieldAlytics’ network of over 3 million field boundaries, poised to redefine farm management and supply chain transparency standards.
Image provided by Varda
