Our crop protection and seed development teams work across the end-to-end value chain in all areas of product stewardship. Our product stewardship approach is tailored to the different nature of these product families.
Crop protection product stewardship
Product stewardship in crop protection is the ‘responsible and ethical management of the product throughout its life cycle’. We aim to develop, manufacture, and distribute effective products, while minimising the risks to human health and the environment as much as possible.
We research, develop, test and register crop protection products to the required standards
In each of the countries where our products are marketed, we follow the standards that are set out by the regulatory body that approves those products and their conditions of application to a particular crop.
While regulatory standards and procedures for product registration vary by country, the overarching goal is consistent: to ascertain product safety for human and environmental health across the markets in which we operate.[1]
As a result, every crop protection product we offer is labelled in accordance with local regulatory standards.
We provide technical and application product knowledge and advice
Within established industry frameworks, we support growers’ training in the safe use of our products.
We also produce safety data sheets (SDS) for each product; these contain detailed emergency response information and are complemented by technical notes that advise on approved crops, correct usage rates, and optimisation strategies.
Our field teams, which we establish in many of the communities using our products, can address technical queries from growers, agronomists, and channel partners, as well as undertake on-farm visits, field days and demonstration events to offer bespoke guidance.
Locally tailored product stewardship initiatives, such as SprayWise Decisions® in Australia and SprayWise in the UK are responsive to regional needs, enhancing growers’ knowledge and application techniques
We aim to procure and manufacture to quality and environmental standards
Nufarm has a large supplier base and we work to build long-term relationships with our suppliers to support the extended time horizons we face in developing, registering, and bringing our products to market.
We partner with Ecovadis, a global leader in supplier environmental social governance (ESG) assessment, to evaluate key current and new suppliers. We have increased our participants in this program and continue to promote this via our procurement group as our preferred assessment program for sophisticated suppliers. We continue to use the Ecovadis IQ program to assist in identifying risk in our supply chain.
To help maintain our quality standards, some of our crop protection sites have obtained ISO9001 certification for their quality management systems.
Our group health, safety and environment (HSE) policy sets our ambition to conduct our business without negative effects on our people, the community, the environment, and to protect resources through sustainable consumption and reuse. To instill a discipline of environmental risk and compliance management, and drive continuous environmental improvement, we set a target to achieve ISO 14001 certification at 10 of our crop protection manufacturing sites by 2025.[2]
Seed Stewardship
Nufarm is committed to producing safe and effective seed products that minimise potential risks to human health, biodiversity and the environment.
Our core seeds platform continues to grow and differentiate across the regions, platforms, and value chain. Our supply chain success is directly related to our commitment to reliable quality products and service. We achieve this through our robust quality management system that continuously evolves to meet or exceed our customer’s expectations.
Nufarm’s processes, stewardship system, and controls are designed to mitigate the risk of trait contamination in the canola value chain outside of omega-3 canola products.
Our omega-3 stewardship program promotes best agricultural practices, responsible management and commercialisation of omega-3 canola products. The program includes our commitment to continuous improvement where processes are continually evaluated and improved for greater efficiency, effectiveness, and flexibility.
Nufarm participates in the Excellence Through Stewardship® (ETS) program administered by the Global Stewardship Group. ETS is an industry-coordinated program that promotes the adoption of product stewardship programs and quality management systems in agricultural biotechnology. Global stewardship audits are conducted by independent, third party ETS-qualified auditors.
References
Our sources
[1] Testing requirements to bring a product to market vary by market, type of product, crop, formulation type and active ingredient.
[2] 1 Our site in Cairo, Egypt is an exception to this target. It is a small formulating and repacking facility, contributing less than 0.20 per cent of our total manufacturing volume. However, it is required to adhere to our corporate environmental standards and procedures