In China, Cargill is working in cooperation with the government to improve farm irrigation in rural areas to conserve water, increase crop yields and as a result, farmer incomes. The first pilot project will take place in Henan province, which has been hard hit by drought. China’s agricultural irrigation water accounts for 65 percent of the country’s annual water consumption.

Farmer training. More than 2.1 million Chinese farmers have participated in our free productivity-enhancing programs on animal nutrition, sanitation, genetics and farm management. Cargill will expand this program to 40 locations in China, allowing for an additional 700,000 farmers to be trained on modern animal nutrition and planting technologies by 2015. The program helped Cargill win the 2008 global award for corporate responsibility from the U.S. State Department. 

On-farm storage. In the United States, our on-farm storage program provides qualifying farmers with a free grain storage bin in exchange for a multi-year grain delivery commitment.  Farmers gain flexibility to better time the sale of their crops to coincide with higher prices.

Farmer field schools. In Côte d’Ivoire, our cocoa buying stations provide transparent pricing information and conduct quality checks. This ensures that farmers get the best price for their crop, are rewarded for good quality beans, and get paid upon delivery. Cargill purchases approximately 85 percent of its cocoa beans from farmer cooperatives in Côte d’Ivoire. In 2011/12, we will teach 60,000 farmers better and safer agricultural practices to improve quality, yields and farmer incomes across 90 cooperatives in Côte d'Ivoire through over 1,100 farmer field schools.

In August 2011 we made certified cocoa premium payments totaling over $2.2 million to 26,500 farmers across 21 cooperatives in Côte d'Ivoire. Over 50 percent of these payments go directly to farmers with the remainder being invested by the cooperatives to provide assistance to members and to build local community facilities. In Zambia, we have established a network of 560 farmer training schools to teach farmers better agricultural practices, help farmers increase incomes and deliver benefits to cotton growing communities. Additionally in Zimbabwe we operate a credit program on an in-kind basis to protect farmers from currency fluctuations.