McCain’s Project 360°: Supporting potato growers’ shift to regenerative agriculture

Partner: One Planet Business for Biodiversity (OP2B)

Implementer: McCain Foods

Country and Region: France (Champagne-Ardenne, Picardie, Nord-Pas-de-Calais)

SAA Impact System: Agriculture and food systems

Impact/Beneficiaries: 8 pilot farms, supporting a network of 136 satellite farms

McCain, a global leader in frozen potato products, has initiated an ambitious project to roll out regenerative agricultural practices across its potato acreage in France. The project aims to promote the transition towards regenerative agriculture practices by creating a network of farms in transition, leveraging pilot farms’ practices, and using soil health specialists to revamp the agricultural processes and protocols used by farmers growing crops for McCain.

The initiative responds to the urgent challenges of climate variability and rising input costs that potato growers face today. McCain is a member of the One Planet Business for Biodiversity (OP2B) coalition, a Race to Resilience partner, which catalyzes action to protect and restore cultivated and natural biodiversity within agricultural value chains in food, beverages, textiles and cosmetics through regenerative agriculture.

Regenerative agriculture is a key solution to create a resilient agricultural system with a positive business model for farmers. It’s a holistic and outcome-based approach that focuses on improving soil health, enhancing biodiversity, improving water retention in soil, reducing pesticide risk, improving nutrient-use efficiency and improving farming livelihoods. Key benefits from McCain’s project include:

• Ensure grower resilience, through the reduction of inputs, energy consumption and yield preservation.
• Keep carbon in the soil, through cover crops, organic matter addition, and reduced tillage.
• Farm biodiversity, with increased crop rotation and hedges/flower strips at field boundaries.
• Reduce agro-chemical inputs with lower toxicity agro-chemicals, predictive modelling technology via satellite, precision nitrogen application, optimized spraying against blight, and increased soil water holding capacity.
• Reduced tillage: autumn ridging for potatoes, low or no tillage.

McCain’s targets are ambitious. By 2030, the company aims to have all its potato farmers at least at the onboarding level of regenerative practices, which includes training, meeting beginner-level indicators, and completing soil health assessments. Additionally, McCain plans to operate three Farms of the Future by 2025 to serve as innovation hubs for developing and sharing regenerative agriculture practices.

To support farmers in this transition, McCain has created a de-risking package for growers in transition including:

• A six-year regenerative agriculture contract, with a premium of 5€/t.
• Technical support, at the farm level, to support the transition.
• A regenerative agriculture-specific loan negotiated with Crédit Agricole, at 0% for the growers and specific payment terms, on a list of investments for the transition

McCain’s commitment to regenerative agriculture represents a transformative approach that can benefit both farmers and the planet. For farmers, this shift means adopting practices that enhance soil health, boost yields, and increase resilience to climate change, leading to more stable and profitable farming operations. For the environment, it results in improved biodiversity, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, and decreased chemical pollution, contributing to a healthier planet. –

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