Yara launches Champer platform that measures sustainability in coffee production

Yara, a global plant nutrition company, is simultaneously launching the Champer platform in Brazil and Colombia. It is a solution that gathers information captured in the fields and cross-references them on a digital platform, delivering data intelligence for the food industry related to productivity, profitability, and sustainability of field production. 

In this initial phase, the platform is focused on the coffee crop, offering visibility on the performance of coffee farms for roasters and the entire industry. Based on field data and soil analysis, among other productive factors, the solution provides a solid and accurate basis for the implementation and monitoring of regenerative practices.

In practice, among a set of possibilities, the technology operates on three axes: an app for capturing field data; a customized dashboard according to the sustainability and production indicators of the digital solution; and qualitative insights from the information gathered.

″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,″ explains João Moraes, Director New Ag Business at Yara. In the coffee scenario, for example, it is up to the roaster to define the parameters of interest and capture the data with the farmer. Once entered into Champer, the data allows for the identification of productive and environmental bottlenecks, continuous improvement, and measurement of the evolution of the farm's production level in different aspects.

In Brazil, the platform already has the adherence of important players in the coffee industry, such as illycaffè, which maintains alongside Yara demonstration farms in nine farms in Minas Gerais directed towards regenerative agriculture practices. The study, initiated in the 2022/2023 harvest, combines the application of the company's nutritional program, NossoCafé, organic compost, and cover crops. The information generated from these demonstrations is gathered in the tool, and thus the previously established indicators by the coffee industry, such as productivity indices, soil quality, nitrogen use efficiency, and carbon footprint, are evaluated.

″Beyond Champer being a platform that gives us visibility of agricultural practices and sustainability indices, it serves as an excellent tool to engage farmers in adopting best practices,″ says Luca Turello, Head of Agronomy at illycaffè. ″And this focus on sustainability has even greater value for the new generation, that is, also collaborating on succession in the field.″

The executive also highlights that the calculation of the carbon footprint is one of the platform's differentiators. ″Even though the industry has commitments to decarbonization, what is observed is that there are still few formulas to actually know the real level of emissions. The platform we are launching can make this calculation through real data provided by traders and roasters. The knowledge generated is extremely valuable for the industry and, consequently, for the producer,″ mentions Moraes.

This new solution is part of Yara's digitalization project, with the goal of scaling the supply of sustainable food for society through a food chain closer to the producer. ″We increasingly seek inputs that provide the main nutrients for plants and have low greenhouse gas emissions, so that we can contribute to the development of an agriculture that not only protects the environment but also restores the soil to its natural characteristics,″ concludes the executive.

Soon, the expectation is that the platform will also be coupled with other company tools, such as Ayra (Yara Nutrition Recommendation System) and Atfarm (tool for monitoring crops and applying nitrogen fertilizers) and that it can be expanded to other crops.