Waitrose is fostering the growth of sustainable agricultural practices across Africa by helping growers to adapt their cultivation and production processes to meet the environmental requirements of the LEAF Marque standard. Waitrose, which has for the past three years used the LEAF Marque guarantee for UK fresh grown produce, has announced a commitment to help ALL its suppliers operate in a productive and environmentally responsible way. The project – a partnership between Waitrose and Green Shoots, LEAF, British & Brazilian, Blue Skies, Sunripe and Wealmoor – is well underway with a range of activities.
LEAF Marque status has been achieved on some larger farms in Kenya and through Blue Skies with a number of its supplying farmers in Ghana. This project’s thrust is to enable smallholders to fully understand and adopt the integrated farm management (IFM) principles underpinning the LEAF Marque for themselves. The initial farmer focus is with 3 farmer pilot groups in Kenya growing vegetables. These groups have been coached in environmentally friendly IFM practices. A training suite of short video stories (told by African agronomists and farmers) illustrating the ten key aspects of IFM has been produced which will be used for all Waitrose’s African suppliers. The films can be viewed on the LEAF website.
Working with Green Shoots Productions and the Waitrose Consumer Communications team, a key component of the project is the development of innovative communication tools that will enable the farms and farmers to be seen and heard by consumers, school children and opinion-influencers such as farmers in the UK. There are podcasts; African fields to visit within the LEAF Virtual Farm Walk; and films such as those below: