Agriculture
Our Goals
Continue to Skill, Connect and Financially Mepower 100% of our direct farmers.
Support 100% of our malt suppliers to help Skill, Connect and Financially Empower their own farmers.
Our Approach
Great beers start in the fields of farmers. As partners to farmers for generations, including thousands of direct farmers and suppliers, we understand that a truly sustainable approach to agriculture is one which puts farmers and their communities at the center. That’s why we seek a farmer-centric and context-specific approach to sustainable agriculture, working with farmers and suppliers to help improve their environmental outcomes and livelihoods in our sourcing regions.
Our agronomists on-the-ground and global team of researchers provide hands-on support and critical inputs to farmers and suppliers that help support their long-term success. Through this support, we aim to continuously improve yields and productivity of farmers across all phases of maturity. Doing so also helps work toward the improved resilience of local agricultural supply chains.
SKILLING
We provide access to improved varieties, inputs, crop management and agronomy support, partnering together for better growing outcomes, such as better yields, fewer inputs and lower water consumption.
CONNECTING
We help farmers leverage technology and insights to adopt or advance local best practices.
FINANCIALLY EMPOWERING
We financially empower farmers with access to tools and training that help them strengthen the financial resilience of their operations.
Inclusive
In 2021, we partnered with the Sustainable Food Lab and other major food and beverage companies to launch the Trusted Advisor Partnership (TAP), an initiative that provides farmers with agronomic support to improve soil health. The program is currently operating in North Dakota, where the land is especially susceptible to soil erosion, but a key outcome will be a plug-and-play model for technical assistance that can be applied to other agricultural geographies and contexts, including tribal communities.
Natural
On AB InBev’s model farm in the Western Cape, South Africa, a shift to minimum till farming has improved soil structure. In addition to mitigating the impacts of drought in a region where rainfall is erratic, minimum tillage has resulted in increased yields, reduced erosion and increased soil carbon storage. Our model farm demonstrates the viability of these regenerative practices, and in turn we can use this knowledge to guide changes among farmers in the region and the larger industry.
Local
We operate in nearly 50 countries and partner with more than 24,000 farmers in our agricultural value chain to address these integrated issues through localized solutions. A key lever to these solutions is right under your feet: soil. Supporting farmers to improve their soil health is a critical pillar of building long-term supply chain resilience, and we recognize there is no one-size-fits-all approach. That’s why we develop systems-based solutions and technologies that intentionally center on local communities and can be maintained for generations to come. We partnered with TNC to develop a framework for soil health —an approach that is flexible across the spectrum of farm sizes, crops and regions from which we source. This framework helps guide our local initiatives in the field.
