June 21, 2021

Cargill, World Food Programme partner to improve farmer's livelihood, risk management skills in China

Cargill and the United Nations' World Food Programme (WFP) have jointly launched on June 17 the Holistic Agriculture Risk Management Project, a three-year pilot initiative in Songyuan, Jilin province, China.

The company contributes US$1 million to WFP to reduce and mitigate the risks that corn farmers face and help them achieve food security while enhancing resilience at the community level.

"WFP is grateful for the generous support from Cargill," said Sixi Qu, WFP's China representative. "We have a shared vision to promote sustainable food system by helping reduce risk and vulnerability to shocks and achieving sustainable food security. Assisting corn farmers with risk management skills and sustainable practice is an important aspect of our partnership. This contribution enables us to increase farmers' productivity and income and make the food system more resilient through working together with both the government and private sectors."

The project aims to increase the resilience of corn farmers in the project area against shocks through application of innovative financial risk transfer approach of "insurance + futures" and promoting sustainable agriculture practice to corn cultivating.

Additionally, the project will regularly provide training on agriculture risk management for local corn farmers every year to improve farmers' livelihood and promote holistic agricultural risk management in the corn industry.

"As the company celebrates the 50th anniversary of its operations in China this year, the project marks a major milestone in Cargill's journey to continuously contribute to farmer prosperity, rural revitalisation and sustainable agriculture in the country," said Jerry Liu, president of Cargill China. "WFP and Cargill have partnered globally to improve farmer's livelihood, and I am thrilled that we are extending that partnership in China. I am sure this intervention will bring considerable value to the farmers and the corn industry in Songyuan and north eastern China."

- Cargill