SAI Platform Coordination for Sustainable Agriculture in Pakistan

Opportunity for Impact

The SAI Platform was launched by Danone, Nestle, and Unilever in 2002 to accelerate pre-competitive collaboration across the food and beverage industry. Today, it is a network of more than 100 member companies, working together to accelerate widespread adoption of sustainable agricultural practices, globally.

This includes Pakistan, which has become a vital global source of sugarcane, wheat, rice, and other agricultural commodities. Agriculture is a key economic driver in the country, contributing roughly 24 percent of Gross Domestic Product and accounting for half of the employed labor force. But climate change poses new risks for the viability of the agriculture sector: Changes in monsoon patterns have already introduced periods of drought and flooding, leading to declining yields, rising prices, and negative economic impacts on more than 100 million people in farming communities. Pakistan is also continually challenged by water scarcity, and excessive use of fertilizer and pesticides has degraded soil health and polluted water sources. Pakistan’s agricultural sector also faces challenges linked to gender equity and fair labor. 

In Pakistan, it is common for different global companies to source from the same set of farmers, but at different times of the year. To promote soil quality and health, Pakistani farmers must deploy sustainable, regenerative agricultural practices year-round and across their major crops. This leads buyer companies to have a vested interest in what happens to the fields even when they are used to grow crops for other buyers.   

Solution

Resonance is working with a company consortium from The Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) platform—including leading multinational agribusinesses such as PepsiCo, Nestlé, and Ingredion—to build pre-competitive and cross-sector partnerships that advance sustainable agricultural supply chains in Pakistan. 

The SAI Platform consortium and several of their member companies engaged Resonance to identify intersecting supply chain challenges and coordinate pre-competitive collaboration to address shared sustainability objectives in Pakistan. 

Resonance leads a multi-stage initiative to: 

• Understand relevant sustainability challenges in Pakistan; 
• Assess the local stakeholder and partner landscape; 
• Identify areas of overlap or potential efficiencies in combining efforts or resources; 
• Align pre-competitively on a partnership approach for engaging with farmers in Pakistan.