“Digitization is something we are looking at in a big way,” Christine Daugherty, PepsiCo’s vice-president of global sustainable agriculture and responsible sourcing, told Quartz on Monday. “When we started sourcing from India, many years ago, we would rely on manual inputs.
“To transfer (field) information to the farmer in a timely manner is really difficult when you have to physically write it down and get there. So now we are working with providing our in-house agronomists with tablets.”
The company is also tailoring its investments to reflect local challenges.
“We know we can’t just come in with complete Western agricultural practices as they may not work in India,” Daugherty said to Franchise India. “So our program goes in and does risk analysis and assessment of environmental, social and economic factors. Post that risk assessment, we decide how to engage with farmers, so they can grow better quality products with fewer input costs…”
PepsiCo works with more than 24,000 Indian farmers across 11 states. They provide crops like potatoes and rice for several products including Lay’s potato chips.