“[Merge Impact] is really designed to help supply chains implement sustainability initiatives at farm level, and then collect data and pass that back up the supply chain or down the supply chain. To help verify that this initiative was actually achieved we work directly with the farmers to intertwine the sustainability with the agronomy field-level planning,” Adolph said.
Providing the data to make farming changes
An online dashboard will then display information on a variety of farming metrics, including overall soil health, biodiversity, and water quality, and provide tips for farmers to improve insight into how farmers can change their practices to be more sustainable. The information is then stored on the Merge Blockchain, so information cannot be altered.
Merge Impact also works to “incentivizes the producers to create that information” working “with the supply chains to help monetize those costs within existing procurement [processes],” he said.
“Our target is the supply chain because we want to get connected to the group of farmers that are in that supply chain and then create change at scale. In order to do that, we have to have a very consistent and efficient return on the information we provide, so most of the work we do, we just need to know where it is, and then we go to work. We do not require the farmer to do a ton of work with us,” Adolph said.
Data is also becoming an important tool for farmers as global warming and weather events impact crops and yields. By using data to inform farming practices, farmers can confirm what actually works in the field and producing the desired results, he added.
“Without data, the only thing that creates change is hardship,” Adolph said. “We first noticed that in the farm level in 2012, and there [was] widespread drought... That is where we started seeing some large-scale cover crop adoption was back in 2012. But if there was not a widespread drought, like would we have seen that? I don’t know. There definitely was not enough data to show that cover crops did it. There were just stories.”
Support regenerative ag with data
The data provided by Merge Impact will also provide a foundation for farmers to understand the practices that work from a land conversation perspective and provide a means to track and implement regenerative agriculture practices, which will also solve a host of problems for the end consumer, Merge Impact co-founder Beth Robertson-Martin told AgTechNavigator.
“We believe that good conservation farming done right will solve all of our problems. And I mean like all of them, including mental health issues. There is a lot of research that shows that access and connection to biodiverse nature actually improves your mental health.”
However, supporting regenerative agriculture is not just about how the crops are grown and the resources used, but it is also about engaging the local communities of farmers, Adolf said.
“Switching over to these regenerative systems, and then capturing the information behind it, helps prove that those practice changes were beneficial in a lot of other categories beyond the ecosystem. We talked about sustainability as three [pillars]: ... the environment, the economic, and the social,” Adolf said.
He added, “[Regenerative agriculture tends] to focus way more on the environmental side, and then you go ask for money. So, [many] of these companies out here, they’re so heavily focused on environment that the financial burden of taking all these steps at once becomes real.”