The Green Room

Growing a new vision for agriculture

By Doug McMillon on January 30, 2013 Leave a comment

When I travel around the world, what strikes me is that we’re a lot more similar than we are different. We all want opportunity. We all want a better standard of living for our families.

With our world’s population rapidly escalating from 7 billion to 9 billion, one of our biggest challenges is food. We have a pressing need to ensure that everyone has access to affordable, nutritious and sustainably grown food. Collaboration — among governments, businesses, organizations and especially farmers – is key, and that’s why last week, many of us gathered to talk about it at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Our conversation centered on WEF’s New Vision for Agriculture initiative – an effort that works to encourage collaboration around increasing food production sustainably. Walmart is one of 28 global companies leading this initiative in cooperation with 14 governments, as well as international organizations, civil society, academic and farmers’ organizations.

Walmart is committed to giving farmers more direct access to markets so they can get a better return. It’s about producing more food with less waste, and providing customers with more affordable and locally grown produce. Groceries are more than half our business around the world, so we have a responsibility to use our global scale and resources to truly make a difference in this area.

Last week at WEF, I co-moderated a discussion with Dyborn Charlie Chibonga, chief executive officer of the National Smallholder Farmers’ Association of Malawi, around farmer and stakeholder empowerment, one of many critical components of the NVA initiative. One way Walmart is helping small farmers in our global markets is our Direct Farm program, which enables us to buy directly from them, cutting out the middle men and the increased costs that can be passed on to farmers and customers.  This program helps increase farmers’ income as well as the quality and freshness of the food our customers buy.

Another benefit Walmart and other retailers can offer these farmers is purchase orders, which gives them confident, consistent access to a market, thereby allowing them to invest in their farms and increase their productivity. For example, in Central America, our agribusiness division has built trust with local produce growers by sharing information like the varieties our customers prefer, working with them to even out planting cycles, providing transparency to market prices and giving prompt payment.

You can read about other public-private partnerships and ways the NVA Initiative is spearheading change in its recent report. For instance, Ethiopia’s Agricultural Transformation Agency, in partnership with the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture and regional agriculture bureaus, has managed to introduce new planting technologies and practices for teff, a staple grain, to more than 75,000 smallholder farmers in just one year. There are other great examples from Indonesia, Mexico, Vietnam and many other countries.

Smaller collaborations like these are key to addressing the global challenge of sustainable agriculture. But they are just one solution. There are many other aspects that also have a continuing need for attention, such as water efficiency and innovation. Although my formal discussion ended Friday and my peers and I have now returned from Davos, we all realize the importance of maintaining this conversation.