Our Sustainable production and trade Learning Pathways

The course on Sustainable Production and Trade consists of two complementary paths that go to the very heart of a company's strategic vision:

• Corporate social responsibility (CSR)
• The links between agriculture and health, and between agriculture and the environment

Corporate social responsibility was born under pressure from civil society on companies to take better account of the environmental and social impacts of their activities. It involves integrating into a company the three pillars of sustainable production: economic, environmental and social. CSR also involves a dialogue with stakeholders (including customers, suppliers, employees, the State and local associations), as it recognises that companies have duties to society.

The concept of sustainability emerged as a result of the contrasts inherent in industrial agricultural production: abundant food production, but predation on the environment and an overall drop in prices offered to farmers. Industrial agriculture, practised since the 1960s in the North and more recently in several countries of the South, responded to a post-war logic of production and rapid population growth. It is a successful agricultural model that has demonstrated its ability to regularly supply the market with quality food products, and its profitability due to the control of production costs. This model has evolved and adapted to reduce its excesses. In developing countries, the approach was popularised by the "Green Revolution", a policy of transforming local agriculture through the intensive use of varieties with high yield potential.

Despite its performance, intensive industrial agriculture has shown its limitations. Excessive use of inputs (fertilisers and pesticides), as well as repeated ploughing with heavy mechanical equipment, have led to degradation of soil structure and environmental pollution, particularly of groundwater and surface water.

In the current context of demographic pressure and climate change, it is essential to rethink this model by introducing more sustainability into agricultural practices and turning to other modes of production and crop protection. We will see that, within their means, farmers can adopt mitigation and adaptation strategies to correct the excesses observed. By improving their production systems step by step, they can meet customer expectations and comply more easily with regulations and standards, which will facilitate their access to markets. However, these efforts only make sense within the framework of a company's global strategic vision, validated by all stakeholders.

This thematic aims at company managers and executives responsible for the strategic orientation of their company, and for the production (conventional or organic) and marketing of products. In particular, they are responsible for keeping informed about customers' requirements and ensuring the company's profitability, while ensuring compliance with general hygiene rules and the safety of production, harvesting and packaging processes. They must improve the sustainability of processes implemented; ensure compliance with specifications (e.g. on corporate social responsibility, CSR); and verify the conformity and traceability of batches placed on the market through documentation accompanying their products.

Target audience: Company managers and executives responsible for compliance with the requirements of CSR and sustainability, as well as the health compliance of product batches (e.g. operations manager, crop manager, production manager, quality and traceability manager).

Rationale: Company managers and executives are responsible for the company's strategic orientation and the choice of production methods. They must ensure that the specifications required for market access are selected and respected, without neglecting regulatory requirements for food safety.

Enhanced skills:

• Manage production units to meet productivity and efficiency requirements, while taking into account the evolution of regulatory and commercial requirements (particularly sustainability and CSR)
• Ensure the continuity of operations, and production compliance with hygiene and quality standards and traceability
• Continually evolve and improve the means of production and sustainability of practices
• Collect and interpret data to manage the company; measure deviations from the sustainability objectives set by the company's strategy and profitability
• Organise and facilitate internal training to strengthen the skills of production staff

Target audience:

• Service providers who deliver technical assistance to company managers and executives to implement CSR requirements or certification
• Service providers who act as trainers and/or trainers-of-trainers or coaches to these people in the field of CSR

Rationale: Providing training (or training-of-trainers) requires the mastery of technical CSR skills (e.g. knowledge of the ISO 26000 standard) and pedagogical skills (communication, group facilitation, coaching, skills assessment). In line with COLEACP's cascade system, ACP experts trained in pedagogy are also needed, for example to strengthen the communication skills of middle managers in companies, or inspection service managers for the internal training of inspectors (training-of-trainers, e.g. through Field Training Workshops).

Enhanced skills:

• Know the requirements of CSR (e.g. the seven central questions of the ISO 26000 standard)
• Develop a plan to bring a company into compliance with CSR objectives (using evaluation tools such as COLEACP's Sustainability Self-Assessment System)
• Develop and/or manage a CSR training programme
• Facilitate a training-of-trainers session, coach and evaluate participants