ICL Group: Pioneering Sustainable Ag Solutions to Reduce Carbon Footprint and Enhance Food Security
Environmental sustainability is critical for ensuring a healthy future for the Earth and its inhabitants. Feeding a growing population on less land will be a challenge for agriculture. Doing so amidst a changing climate will require innovation to minimize environmental impacts and adapt to new challenges in production agriculture.
Positioning for the future and the opportunities it will bring requires an understanding of the current situation, the impacts of carbon footprint, changes needed, and solutions in place today that support environmental sustainability for the future. Israel based ICL Group, is an example of a leading global provider of sustainable ag solutions and innovative products.
Every person and every industry around the world will feel the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions. As an industry, agriculture is both vulnerable to the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions as well as a contributor to the problem. It’s especially important to evaluate what mitigation strategies exist within agricultural production practices to reduce the industry’s carbon emissions and footprint.
Overarchingly, agriculture has an opportunity to lead the way in progressing towards a zero emissions future. When engaged at scale, farming technologies and changes to agricultural practices can massively reduce agriculture’s global carbon emissions.
Farmers can directly engage in actions to reduce carbon emissions. The World Resources Institute indicates one example of how to reduce carbon emissions in agriculture is through intentional crop management practices and varieties.
McKinsey has outlined how to reduce carbon emissions in agriculture through improved farming practices. Variable rate fertilization, adequate application of nitrogen, minimizing tillage, improving water management, and improved fertilization practices and timing are all steps to sustainable farming that can help reduce carbon footprint.
Increasing nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) is one specific area of opportunity to reduce agriculture’s carbon footprint. Increasing NUE often reduces greenhouse gas emissions and serves as a strong indicator of sustainable farming practices.
Healthy soils are the foundation of healthy food and a better environment. Soil fertility has a crucial role in producing sufficient, safe, and more nourishing food for healthier plants, animals, and people.
Beyond inputs and production practices, there’s an opportunity for farmers to engage in carbon sequestration to combat a climbing carbon footprint. As more forests and grasslands have been transitioned into farmland or uptaken by urbanization, the soil structure has been disrupted. Ultimately, this releases stored carbon.
Soil can be part of the solution to reducing carbon footprint. Sequestration, or the storage of carbon in the broken-down matter of the plants that once absorbed the carbon from the atmosphere, can help combat carbon emissions. Scientists have estimated that soils could sequester over a billion additional tons of carbon each year.
Agricultural soils are the primary target. Because cropland accounts for 10% of the Earth’s land, a massive opportunity exists for soil-based sequestration through planting certain types of crops and minimizing intensive tilling. However, the Earth’s warming could lead to widespread carbon losses by increasing the pace of soil organic matter decay.
Outside of agronomic practices, opportunities exist for on-farm optimization for carbon footprint. Increasing energy efficiency and shifting away from fossil energy use is another answer to the question of how to reduce carbon emissions in agriculture.
A study in Nature Energy found that solar, wind, and nuclear energy all have low carbon footprints. With adaptations to equipment to increase energy efficiency or move to alternative sources of energy, greenhouse gasses can be reduced. Farmers can also move to on-farm renewable energy production through solar panels and wind turbines.
ICL Group (NYSE:ICL, TASE: ICL), Israel-based, leading global specialty minerals company and one of the largest fertilizer manufacturers in the world, is also one of the leading global providers of sustainable ag solutions and innovative products that can help reduce carbon footprint. ICL’s commitment to a Zero Carbon future is demonstrated through ICL’s business practices and solutions to support sustainable farming and reduce carbon footprint.
ICL is dedicated to pioneering products and technologies that address critical global challenges, including advancing food security (SDG 2 - Zero Hunger), climate change mitigation (SDG 13), water conservation (SDG 6), and the promotion of circular agricultural methodologies.
Their comprehensive range of products, including state-of-the-art fertilizers, bio-stimulants, and digital farming tools, positions ICL as a key contributor to enhancing agricultural productivity, reducing environmental impact, and advancing food security.
Embracing sustainability, responsible product management, and Industry 4.0 innovations, ICL is not just a participant in global food supply chains; it is leading the transition towards a more sustainable, efficient, and resource-conscious agricultural industry.
ICL Sustainable Solutions emphasizes the company's proactive approach in expanding its global positive impact through strategic innovation and development.
By leveraging its comprehensive product portfolio along with a mature and robust research and development ecosystem, ICL is at the forefront of introducing forthcoming innovations that set benchmarks for sustainability. Two great examples of sustainable solutions are:
Controlled-release fertilizers (CRFs) help optimize crop nutrient levels throughout the plant’s entire growth cycle with a single application. CRFs allow farmers to reduce nutrient losses and improve yield all while simplifying fertilizer application, minimizing soil disturbance, and reducing fossil fuel use. Controlled-release fertilizers support uniform growth and optimum yield while reducing leaching and protecting against “salt stress.”
More than 50 years ago, ICL pioneered with the introduction of Osmocote, the first generation of controlled-release fertilizers. ICL’s latest innovations in CRFs include eqo.x and eqo.s. Using a first-of-its-kind biodegradable controlled release technology, this family brings CRFs to a whole new era.
The innovative and greener technology behind eqo.x and eqo.s provides precise crop nutrition through a coating that decomposes in soil without leaving traces while helping improve crop yield and quality, reduce nutrient loss, and simplify fertilizer applications.
In addition to the benefit to farmers, the biodegradable coating significantly reduces the leaching of nutrients into the soil and groundwater as well as the volatilization of ammonia and greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, offering a notable improvement over conventional fertilizers.
Polysulphate® is a fertilizer that’s available in its natural state, without requiring any chemical separation or industrial processes. It’s a single complex crystal, mined from underneath the North Sea via ICL’s site at Boulby in the United Kingdom.
It has the lowest carbon footprint of any fertilizer available. Polysulphate® provides sulfur, potassium, magnesium, and calcium - four essential macronutrients - with a prolonged nutrient release rate that reduces the risk of sulfate leaching- for healthy plant growth.
ICL’s AgTech Solutions
ICL’s business and engagement in determining how farmers can reduce carbon emissions go beyond environmentally sustainable fertilizer solutions. ICL combines proven agriculture industry experience, advanced fertilizer solutions, and cutting-edge technology together to develop AgTech solutions that drive environmentally friendly farming.
Connecting farmers and their advisors to the whole agriculture ecosystem is the aim of the Growers platform. Managing relationships and data across farmers, advisors, and retailers can be challenging and time-consuming. The Growers platform empowers and unites the agriculture community to enable a sustainable and profitable future.
Agmatix leverages agronomic big data and the power of AI technology to optimize agriculture operations through actionable insights. Agmatix’s suite of digital tools supports agronomic trials, on-farm decision support, and sustainability through science-based methodologies.
ICL advisors and customers can optimize crop quality with AngelaWeb 2.0, an online fertilizer recommendation tool. Over 900 crop-specific recommendations that take variety, growing media, and growth phase into account are available.
The Nutrient Deficiency Guide is an agrotech solution that helps detect nutrient deficiencies among container nursery stock and pot and bedding plants. This global, multi-language solution allows users to browse deficiencies by crop and nutrient while suggesting possible solutions. Guides point growers to growing the strongest and healthiest crops, from olives to coffee to alfalfa.
The PeKacid advisor app goes hand-in-hand with foliar applications of Nova PeKacid. This AgTech solution provides a safe way to adjust water pH and improve foliar application efficiency.
Growers can take full advantage of the benefits of Polysulphate® with the Polysulphate E-learning tool. With quick access to a range of information about this natural crystal fertilizer, the app provides all the necessary information to understand and use Polysulphate®.
Agronomists and farmers can be confident in using controlled-release fertilizers, Polysulphate®, foliar fertilizers, and FertilizerpluS in their plans to reduce carbon footprint. Combined with AgTech solutions that optimize knowledge, data, and application, growers have a great opportunity to reduce carbon emissions.
From manufacturing to transportation, on the ground and in the cloud, ICL is committed to sustainability in the products produced today and tomorrow.