Building a new strategic direction for the Crops Working Group
24th June 2022
The Crops Working Group aims to foster the collective capabilities and behaviour change necessary for members to deliver on their climate ambitions.
SAI Platform’s new Crops Manager, Robyn Cooper brought the Crops Working Group together in an online meeting co-hosted by the working group’s chair, Brian Nash in May. In the context of accelerated membership growth for SAI Platform, the meeting focused on building a collective understanding of members’ shared ambitions.
This sparked a lively conversation and resulted in high levels of member engagement. Member input from the meeting will contribute to the strategic direction of SAI Platform under the key themes of Climate, Nature, and Livelihoods. The team are also using this insight to develop a Crops specific roadmap, which will be used to guide the future activity of the Crops Working Group.
“The engagement and enthusiasm from members was infectious. The meeting shone a light on the invaluable role that the Crops Working Group can play in pulling together the different pieces of the puzzle in our collective efforts towards just and climate-smart agricultural value chains.”
Robyn Cooper, Crops Manager, SAI Platform.
An interactive workshop captured key insights on the definition, scoping, priorities, and challenges within the key themes through the lens of SAI Platform’s strategic pillars: collaborative action, industry solutions, and theme leadership.
Building on the valuable output of the workshop, the Crops Working Group roadmap (currently under development) aims to foster the collective capabilities and behaviour change necessary for members to deliver on their climate ambitions. The Crops initiatives stemming from the roadmap will be a key component of the SAI Platform value offering, while also informing the ongoing efforts towards developing fit for purpose and aligned industry solutions.
“I’m really excited about what’s on the horizon for the Crops Work Group. We’re working to build a roadmap to further align our efforts with the overall SAI Platform strategy, including driving efforts around growing member climate ambitions.”
Brian Nash, Director, Sustainability, Ingredion Incorporated.
Following members’ interest to strengthen their engagement in the SAI Platform’s regenerative agriculture programme, a joint workshop was held on 16th June to facilitate Crops Working Group’s input into the development of the regenerative agriculture indicators. Members contributed to the development of the indicators applicable to crop farming. These indicators will be used to measure progress towards regenerative outcomes across the impact areas included in the framework, namely land & soil, water, biodiversity, and climate.
On 1st of September, members of the Crops Working Group will be invited to the second meeting of the year to review, edit, and approve the roadmap. A full agenda will be shared with members soon.
SAI Platform members that were unable to join the Crops Working Group meeting or the regenerative agriculture workshop can access the recordings and follow up materials on My SAI Platform. If you are interested in getting involved with the Crops Working Group, do not hesitate to reach out to Robyn Cooper at rcooper@saiplatform.org.
