Supporting Modern Agriculture
Modern agriculture's objective is simple: increase food production, maintain on-farm profitability, promote food affordability and nutritional value, while minimizing environmental impacts. This community-centred approach prioritizes feeding a growing global population while safeguarding natural ecosystems through enhanced soil health, water quality, biodiversity, and carbon sequestration.
Western Canadian growers are champions of modern agriculture.
- They minimize soil disturbance and preserve moisture through minimal tillage.
- They have extended their crop rotations (to three years or more) to better support crop and soil health, biodiversity, and carbon objectives.
- They manage their nutrient use and millions of acres across Canada are cultivated through 4R Nutrient Stewardship.
At Richardson Pioneer, we believe that the modern agricultural practices and innovative technologies our grower customers are using every day are the keys to sustainable cropping systems.
Balancing Productivity & Stewardship
Our team delivers cutting-edge solutions to support our customers and the goals of modern agriculture:
- We lead with agronomy in annual crop planning and leverage digital tools, where needed, to drive efficiency.
- We offer high quality products and tools and invest in best-in-class assets to enhance our customers' on-farm productivity and stewardship.
- We retail innovative seed genetics to enhance crop yield, resilience, and return on investment.
- We collaborate on effective nutrient management, including the 4R approach and variable rate technology (VRT).
4R Nutrient Stewardship
Our sales and agronomy experts will assess each customer’s nutrient needs and make recommendations using the 4R Nutrient Stewardship approach.
The 4R Principles
- The Right Source – matching the fertilizer type to crop needs
- Right Rate – matching the amount of fertilizer to crop needs
- Right Time – making nutrients available when crops need them
- Right Place – keeping nutrients where crops can use them
4R Nutrient Stewardship is backed by research from agronomic scientists using performance indicators chosen by stakeholders in crop production systems. This approach to managing crop nutrients, including organic sources and fertilizer, is key to reducing emissions and is supported by Fertilizer Canada, which offers 4R designation. Richardson Pioneer has over 90 4R-certified agronomists (and counting!) across our network.
Variable Rate in Our Network
At a Glance
160,000+
acres grown with variable rate fertility
70,000+
acres seeded through variable rate scripts
125,000+
acres with variable rate fungicide applications
Areas of Continued Focus
Since 1960, global food production has surged over three-fold, with only a 10% increase in land use1. This is all thanks to Western Canadian growers' enthusiastic adoption of modern agriculture, every growing season.
We are dedicated to supporting our customers as a trusted partner, both on an individual level and within the industry:
- Promoting collaboration among growers, industry, government, and academics to drive research into cutting-edge technologies.
- Pledging to increase the adoption of the 4R nutrient management framework and maintain a leadership position in Western Canada. We also advocate for official recognition of 4R practices by the federal government.
- Championing intensity-based emissions reduction strategies and actively seeking collaborative opportunities to introduce new products to the market that contribute to this goal.
1 OECD. 2021. https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/agriculture-and-food/making-better-policies-for-food-systems_ddfba4de-en.
Annual Sustainability Report
The Richardson International Sustainability Report addresses three core areas: our environmental impact and stewardship across our supply chain; our interactions with employees, customers, partners, and communities; and our standards, information disclosure, and compliance policies.