Corteva Agriscience

Other agricultural inputs
Corteva makes other agricultural inputs available to smallholder farmers, including pesticides, herbicides and other crop protection products. The company promotes the use of these agricultural inputs in appropriate quantities and provides instructions on safe use on the products’ labels.

Access to seeds for smallholder farmers and governance and accountability
Corteva’s access to seeds strategy includes a prioritising marketing and sales as well as capacity building. The strategy has two targets that the company aims to meet by 2030: reaching 500 million smallholder farmers cumulatively and providing agronomic training to 25 million farmers. The company has an opportunity to expand its strategy to include targets for other aspects of ensuring access to seeds for smallholder farmers. While the company’s Sustainability, Safety and Innovation Committee is responsible for oversight of the company’s access to seeds strategy, it has an opportunity to link its board committee remuneration policy to its access to seeds objectives.

Stakeholder engagement
The company states that it engages with stakeholders such as trade associations, nonprofits and suppliers in developing its 2030 sustainability goals, which include topics and targets related to the company’s access to seeds strategy. Could consider disclosing how it identifies its most relevant stakeholders.

Licensing
Corteva offers royalty-free or licencing of its material for the benefit of use in index countries and has an active licencing programme for the use of modern breeding tools. These are made available at no cost to research organisations and with a mutually agreed licence fee when used for commercial purposes.

Conservation of genetic resource and benefit sharing
One of the company’s sustainability goals is to support activities to conserve and use a diverse set of crops and genetic resources. However, it could disclose more about these activities and in which index countries they take place.

Plant breeding activities in index regions
The company does not have a breeding programme in the index region, but it does make improved varieties of maize developed in its other breeding programmes available for smallholder farmers in the region. The company works in collaboration with CIMMYT to jointly develop improved crops with traits like resistance/tolerance to pests and diseases such as maize lethal necrosis using CRISPR technology. These are traits that are especially important for smallholder farmers in the region.

Seed production activities in index region
The company does not have seed production locations in the region. It has the opportunity to introduce seed production locations in the region and engage with local seed companies and farmer organisations, respecting social and labour rights of workers. This would contribute to the transfer of advanced technologies and strengthen both local expertise and a sustainable business climate.

Diverse portfolio
As the company has only a few varieties for the majority of crops in all index countries where it has sales, it can diversify its portfolio by offering more varieties per crop.

Quality assurance and after-sales
Corteva Agriscience takes measures to prevent the sale of counterfeit seeds, including partnering with law enforcement bodies and distributors to increase monitoring of its seed distribution. The company could disclose information regarding its aftersales quality assurance systems, prevention of the sale of expired seeds and after-sales support programmes.

Extension services
The company provides agronomic and market support to grower customers in all markets where it offers commercial seed in the region and it usually carries this out in partnership. However, it could consider providing region-specific examples of these extension services.

Information and communications technology (ICT)
Corteva does use advanced analytics, software tools, mobile communications and new planting and monitoring equipment to provide agronomic recommendations to growers. It also provides weather-related alerts in the region. However, the company has the opportunity to provide more detailed and region-specific examples regarding the programmes it has in place to advance the use of ICT among smallholders in the region.

Cereals
Maize
Sorghum

Beans, dry
Maize
Millets
Rice, paddy
Sorghum
Soya bean
Sunflower
Wheat

Download the portfolios of all companies in the 2021 index for Western and Central Africa here.

Licensing
Corteva offers royalty-free or licensing of its material for the benefit of use in index countries and has an active licensing programme for the use of modern breeding tools. These are made available at no cost to research organisations, with a mutually agreed licence fee when used for commercial purposes.

Plant breeding activities in index countries
Corteva has its own breeding programmes in Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa and Zambia. The company develops hybrid varieties of sorghum, maize and sunflower and notably incorporates resistance/tolerance to pests and diseases, traits especially important for smallholder farmers in the region. For example, the company works in collaboration with International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) to jointly develop improved varieties of maize with resistance/tolerance to maize lethal necrosis using CRISPR genes editing technology.

Seed production activities in index region
The company has seed production locations in Kenya, South Africa, Zambia and Ethiopia. In each country, it has anywhere from five to twenty staff leading its local seed production efforts, with the majority of its seed production based on contracts with smallholder farmers.

Other agricultural inputs
Corteva makes other agricultural inputs available to smallholder farmers, including pesticides, herbicides and other crop protection products. The company promotes the use of these agricultural inputs in appropriate quantities and provides instructions on safe use on the products’ labels

Extension services
The company provides agronomic and market support to grower customers in all markets where it offers commercial seed, and it usually carries this out in partnership with local information service systems. In Tanzania, for example, Corteva is collaborating with United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Agricultural Cooperative Development International (ACDI) on a project for smallholders to increase their access to high-quality inputs, promote good agricultural practices, facilitate market links and increase farmers’ access to credit. The company further announced a three-year project in 2020 in Zambia to increase the productivity and incomes of 10,000 ‘emerging’ farmers, a third of whom are women. The project will provide on-the-ground training on sustainable farming practices and increased access to agricultural technologies and capital, as well as critical market links.

Access to seeds for smallholder farmers and governance and accountability
Corteva’s access to seeds strategy includes objectives for marketing and sales and capacity building. The company aims to reach 500 million smallholder farmers cumulatively by 2030 and to provide agronomic training to 25 million farmers by 2030. The company has an opportunity to expand its strategy to include targets for other aspects of ensuring access to seeds for smallholder farmers. While the company’s Sustainability, Safety and Innovation Committee is responsible for overseeing the company’s access to seeds strategy, it has an opportunity to link its board remuneration policy to its access to seeds objectives.

Stakeholder engagement
The company states that it engages with stakeholders such as trade associations, non-profits and suppliers in developing its 2030 sustainability goals, which include topics and targets related to its access to seeds strategy. Corteva can increase disclosure in this area regarding how it identifies its most relevant stakeholders.

Conservation of genetic resources
One of the company’s goals identified in its ‘2030 Sustainability Goals’ is to support activities that conserve and use a diverse set of crops and genetic resources. However, it could disclose more on these activities and in which index countries they take place, for example whether it provides assistance to public genebanks to conserve germplasm of crops grown in index countries.

Local participation in breeding/variety development
The company does not disclose whether it uses feedback from local consumers, traders and smallholder farmers in the index region to inform its breeding programme, nor does it suggest that it gives specific attention to feedback from women farmers.

Variety testing
The company conducts variety testing in four of the 17 index countries where it is active on crops from its own breeding programmes and portfolio. It could consider extending its testing locations to other countries in the region where it is active.

Engaging smallholder farmers in seed production
The company is committed to engaging smallholder farmers in its seed production activities. However, it has the opportunity to provide examples of the contracts it offers and evidence on how these contracts share profits and risks and make arrangements on product prices favourable to smallholders.

Social and labour rights in seed production
The company is committed to prohibiting child labour and forced labour in its own operations and requires its suppliers to adhere to the same standard. It has outlined this in a statement published on its website, but it has an opportunity to disclose a coordinated and consistent monitoring system for its own operations and supply chain. While Corteva is committed to health and safety, it can improve its performance by disclosing more in how this relates to workers in its seed production chain. Moreover, the company does not disclose any evidence of policies or commitments related to living wage.

Diverse portfolio
As the company has only a few varieties for the majority of portfolio crops in most index countries where it has sales in the region, it can diversify its portfolio by offering more varieties and more seed types per crop.

Quality assurance and after-sales
Corteva takes measures to prevent the sale of counterfeit seeds, including partnering with law enforcement bodies and distributors to increase monitoring of its seed distribution. To improve its performance in this area, the company could disclose information regarding its quality assurance systems, measures to prevent the sale of expired seeds and after-sales support programmes.

Programmes for women farmers and next-generation farmers
The company provides extension services in the region but can expand its programmes to target women and next-generation farmers.

Information and communications technology (ICT)
Corteva Agriscience uses advanced analytics, software tools, mobile communications and new planting and monitoring equipment to provide agronomic recommendations to growers. It also provides weather-related alerts in the region. However, the company has the opportunity to provide more detailed and region-specific examples regarding the programmes it has in place to advance the use of ICT among smallholders.

Beans, dry
Maize
Millets
Rice, paddy
Sorghum
Soya bean
Sunflower
Wheat

Maize
Sunflower
Sorghum

Download the portfolios of all companies in the 2021 index for Eastern and
Southern Africa here.

Seed production activities in index region
The company has seed production locations in India, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. It reports engaging with farmer organisations/cooperatives as well as being in direct contact with local farmers. However, it could provide examples of how local players are involved in its seed production.

Other agricultural inputs
Corteva makes other agricultural inputs available to smallholder farmers, including pesticides, herbicides and other crop protection products. The company promotes the use of these agricultural inputs in appropriate quantities and provides instructions on safe use on the products’ labels.

Extension services
The company provides agronomic and market support to grower customers in all markets where it offers commercial seed, and this is usually carried out in partnership with local information service systems. In Indonesia, for example, Corteva has helped more than 13,000 smallholder farmers increase their productivity and profitability through a shared value initiative with PRISMA in the period 2018-2020. Through this initiative, the company helped farmers adopt high-quality and climate-adaptive hybrid corn and provided training to government extension field staff to ensure broader adoption of good agriculture practices.

Programmes for women farmers
In Indonesia, Corteva and PRISMA offered Ibu Hebat (“Great Mother”), a training session exclusively for women corn farmers. The company further held more than 200 training programmes in partnership with the non-profit, non-governmental organisation PRADAN in India. These programmes educated 12,000 women on agronomy practices and financial literacy.

Access to seeds for smallholder farmers and governance and accountability
Corteva’s access to seeds strategy includes objectives for marketing and sales and capacity building. The company aims to reach 500 million smallholder farmers cumulatively by 2030 and to provide agronomic training to 25 million farmers by 2030. The company has an opportunity to expand its strategy to include targets for other aspects of ensuring access to seeds for smallholder farmers. While the company’s Sustainability, Safety and Innovation Committee is responsible for overseeing the company’s access to seeds strategy, it has an opportunity to link its board remuneration policy to its access to seeds objectives.

Stakeholder engagement
The company states that it engages with stakeholders such as trade associations, non-profits and suppliers in developing its 2030 sustainability goals, which include topics and targets related to its access to seeds strategy. Corteva can increase disclosure in this area regarding how it identifies its most relevant stakeholders.

Conservation of genetic resources
One of the company’s sustainability goals is to support activities to conserve and use a diverse set of crops and genetic resources. However, it could disclose more about these activities and in which index countries they take place.

Licensing
Corteva offers royalty-free or lower price licensing of its material for the benefit of use in index countries and has an active licensing programme for the use of modern breeding tools. These are made available at no cost to research organisations and with a mutually agreed licence fee when used for commercial purposes. The company could provide greater disclosure on whether it grants licences for its materials for the benefit of smallholder farmers in index countries, and the conditions under which this takes place.

Plant breeding activities index countries and local participation in breeding/variety development
Corteva has its own breeding programme in India but could disclose more about its breeding activities in other index countries in the region. It is unclear whether the company invests in building the capacity of local plant breeders in the region, or whether it uses feedback from local consumers, traders and smallholder farmers to inform its breeding programmes.

Variety testing
The company only performs variety trials in India, one of the six index countries where it is active, on crops from its own breeding programmes and portfolio as well as other breeding programmes, such as those of other companies or public research institutes. The company could consider extending its testing locations to other countries in the region where it is active.

Engaging smallholder farmers in seed production
The company is committed to engaging smallholder farmers and indicates that it offers contracts to smallholder farmers in the region without requiring intermediaries to do so. However, it provides no evidence to support this. It has the opportunity to improve its performance in the area by providing examples of the contracts it offers and evidence on how these contracts share profits and risks and make arrangements on product prices favourable to smallholders.

Quality management in seed production in index countries
The company has an internal quality management system as well as external certifications that cover all of its seed production to ensure consistent seed quality is maintained throughout the seed production process. However, it could provide examples and elaboration of such a system to improve its performance in this area.

Social and labour rights in seed production
The company is committed to prohibiting child labour and forced labour in its own operations and requires its suppliers to adhere to the same standards. It has outlined this in a statement published on its website, but it has an opportunity to disclose a coordinated and consistent monitoring system for its own operations and supply chain. While Corteva is committed to health and safety, it can improve its performance by disclosing more quantitative information on its workers. Moreover, the company does not disclose any evidence of policies or commitments related to living wage.

Diverse portfolio
As the company has only a few varieties for the majority of crops in most index countries where it has sales in the region, it can diversify its portfolio by offering more varieties and more seed types per crop.

Quality assurance and after-sales
Corteva takes measures to prevent the sale of counterfeit seeds, including partnering with law enforcement bodies and distributors to increase monitoring of its seed distribution. To improve its performance in this area, the company could disclose information regarding its quality assurance systems, prevention of the sale of expired seeds and after-sales support programmes.

Information and communications technology (ICT)
Corteva uses advanced analytics, software tools, mobile communications and new planting and monitoring equipment to provide agronomic recommendations to growers. It also provides weather-related alerts in the region. However, it has the opportunity to provide more detailed and region-specific examples regarding the programmes it has in place to advance the use of ICT among smallholders.

Rice
Corn
Millet

Beans, dry
Maize
Millets
Rice, paddy
Sorghum
Soya bean
Sunflower
Wheat

Download the portfolios of all companies in the 2021 index for South and South-East Asia here.