Britain’s largest supermarket retailer Tesco is calling for industry wide collaboration to help farmers adopt low carbon fertilisers at scale, in a move it says will help improve UK food security and create stability for British growers.
Tesco chief executive Ashwin Prasad, speaking at the recent London Tech Week recently, said UK-produced low carbon fertilisers could help reduce emissions while enabling farmers to better weather supply chain shocks. He highlighted the barriers many growers face in adopting new technologies and called for more targeted support to get innovation onto farms.
Mr Prasad noted the recent Middle East conflict-led disruption and price increases affecting global fertiliser supply chains. Low carbon fertilisers could offer a more price-stable, domestically produced alternative, he stated, especially with the recent rise in conventional fertiliser prices narrowing the price gap between low carbon fertilisers and conventional products. But farmers cite a lack of widespread supply and difficulty in accessing funding for trials as barriers to making the change.
Tesco’s own trials on its Low Carbon Concept Farm in Lincolnshire are promising. Work with Branston on potatoes using a combination of low carbon growing techniques saw a 50% reduction in carbon emissions, with no effect on yield or quality.
Based on this experience, Tesco is calling on others across the food chain to scale low carbon fertiliser production and availability, allowing these products to move from small-scale or pilot use into mainstream commercial adoption.
“We want to support our British farmers in rolling out innovation – it can help increase economic growth, build resilience and improve efficiencies on farm,” said Mr Prasad. “But too often promising technologies struggle to move from trial to everyday use on farms.
“Low carbon fertilisers are a clear example. They have real potential to reduce environmental impact, strengthen the resilience of UK food production, and keep a reliable supply of British products on our shelves – but scaling them will require greater availability, clarity on price and the confidence that farmers can plan their use over the long term.
Tesco has relaunched its Tesco Agri-tech Challenge to help accelerate the development of innovation on farms. Applications are open until 3 July.