Yara is simultaneously launching the Champer platform in Brazil and Colombia. It gathers information collected from crops on a digital platform and cross-references it, delivering data intelligence to the food industry related to productivity, profitability and sustainability of production in the field. This new development is another step forward for the company in line with its ambition to cultivate a nature-positive food future by integrating different links in the value chain.
In this initial phase, Champer focuses on coffee farming, offering visibility into the performance of coffee plantations for roasters and the entire industry. Based on field data and soil analysis, among other production factors, the solution offers a solid and accurate basis for implementing and monitoring regenerative practices. In practice, amid a set of possibilities, Champer works on three axes: an application for capturing data in the field; a customized dashboard based on the sustainability and production indicators of the digital solution; and qualitative insights based on the information collected.
“The platform is aimed at the value chain and the food industry in general, whose environmental commitments to decarbonization, production, soil health and producer prosperity are already incorporated into business strategies,” he explains. John Moraes (pictured above), Yara’s New Business Director. In the coffee scenario, for example, it is up to the roaster to define the parameters of interest and capture the data from the farmer. Once entered into Champer, the data allows the identification of production and environmental bottlenecks, continuous improvement and measurement of the evolution of the farm’s production level in different aspects.
In Brazil, the platform has already been adopted by one of the most important players in the coffee industry, illycaffè, which, together with Yara, maintains demonstration crops on nine farms in Minas Gerais focused on regenerative agriculture practices. The study, which began in the 2022/2023 harvest, combines the application of Yara's nutritional program, NossoCafé, organic compost and cover crops. The information generated from these demonstrations is gathered in Champer and, thus, the indicators previously established by illycaffè are evaluated, such as productivity indexes, soil quality, nitrogen use efficiency and carbon footprint.
“In addition to Champer being a platform that gives us visibility into agricultural practices and sustainability indexes, it is also a great tool for engaging farmers in adopting best practices,” says Luca Turello, Head of Agronomy at illycaffè. “And this focus on sustainability is even more valuable for the new generation, as it also contributes to succession in the field.”
The calculation of the carbon footprint, in fact, is one of the platform’s distinguishing features. “Even though the industry is committed to decarbonization, what we see is that there are still few formulas to actually know the real level of emissions. The platform we are launching can make this calculation using real data provided by traders and roasters. The knowledge generated is extremely valuable for the industry and, consequently, for the producer,” highlights Moraes.
This new solution is part of Yara's digitalization project, which aims to scale the supply of sustainable food to society through a food chain closer to the producer. “We are increasingly looking for inputs that provide the main nutrients for plants and that have low greenhouse gas emissions, in order to contribute to the development of agriculture that not only protects the environment, but also restores the soil to its natural characteristics,” concludes Moraes.
Soon, Champer is expected to be coupled with other Yara tools, such as Ayra (Yara Nutrition Recommendation System) and Atfarm (a tool for monitoring crops and applying nitrogen fertilizers) and that it can be expanded to other crops.
Yara is also holding the eighth edition of the NossoCafé Contest, an annual competition that evaluates specialty coffees with the aim of stimulating high-quality national production, reinforcing the importance of balanced nutrition throughout the crop's production cycle. Registration is open until September 24. The 2024 edition, which includes the categories “Natural Coffee” and “Hulled, Peeled or Demucilated Coffee”, features the novelty of holding regional competitions in four different locations in Brazil, totaling eight regional winners.
All of them will have their production purchased by Yara and will win a trip to the International Coffee Week, in Belo Horizonte (MG), where the two national champions will be revealed, who will be able to choose between a 6-day trip to Colombia or opt for technical or marketing consultancy worth R$10.000,00.
With the aim of bringing even more innovation and efficiency to coffee farming, Yara recently launched YaraMila InovaPlus, with a balanced ratio of nitrogen and potassium and a higher amount of sulfur and magnesium, nutrients that are highly demanded by coffee plantations. In addition, the product meets the sustainability demands of the coffee market, as its production process reduces the carbon footprint by 50% when compared to products offered on the market, in line with Yara's ambition to cultivate a nature-positive food future.
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