Walmart launches regenerative rice farming effort in home state
Walmart Inc. is building on an established partnership to help rice farmers in Arkansas operate more sustainably and profitably.
The Bentonville, Ark.-based discount giant is teaming with CPG company Kellanova and sustainable agriculture solutions provider Indigo Ag to introduce a new regenerative agriculture program called “Source by Indigo” across Arkansas.
The collaboration builds on four years of partnership between Walmart and Indigo Ag in an effort to provide farmers with resources, data, and technical support to build more resilient and profitable rice farming operations across the state.
Farmers participating in the program receive a financial premium for every pound of rice produced using regenerative methods. These funds support new practices such as improved water management, optimized fertilizer application, and crop rotation to enhance soil quality and biodiversity.
The co-investment, which according to Walmart has already helped rice farmers supplying its Great Value private label brand reduce emissions by over 37,000 metric tons of CO₂e, conserve over 11 billion gallons of water, and return more than $900,000 into farmers, is now being expanded by Kellanova's participation.
Source by Indigo is designed to enable companies to support regenerative outcomes from rice production through a verified, end-to-end process aligned with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol. The program also aligns with Walmart’s Project Gigaton, an initiative the discounter launched in 2017 to avoid one gigaton (one billion metric tons) of carbon dioxide from its global value chain by 2030.
"We are excited to see our regenerative agriculture goals becoming reality. Expanding our partnership with Indigo Ag to include Kellanova reflects the scale of impact we can achieve by working together to strengthen supply chains, support farmers, and advance environmental stewardship," said Mikel Hancock, senior director, strategic initiatives, sustainability at Walmart Inc.
Walmart pursues regenerative goal
Walmart has been formally working toward a larger achievement of becoming a "regenerative" company — helping to renew people and the planet through its business. First announced in September 2020, other recent examples of the strategy include deploying Helios Artificial Intelligence climate risk and price forecasting software, as well as partnering with crop supply intelligence company Agritask to test the effectiveness of AI in aiding fruit sourcing.
[READ MORE: Walmart pilots AI-assisted fruit sourcing]
The company is also deploying custom-built solutions on the Cropin generative AI-equipped agricultural intelligence platform to improve the accuracy of efforts to forecast yield, monitor crop health and predict seasonal transitions of fresh produce across its U.S. and South American markets.
