Guillaume Fraipont, Group Agronomy

Engineer for New Technologies, focuses on the relationship between agronomy and sustainability.

Growing up near one of our factories, Guillaume Fraipont’s passion for agriculture continued into adulthood, as evidenced by his bioengineering degree. Six years ago, he fulfilled his lifelong ambition by joining Ardo as a field agronomist. Meanwhile, he has progressed to the group level, where he remains committed to our long-term agronomy vision: “Because agronomy and sustainability are strongly linked, I am confident that our field actions will have a positive impact.”

In 2013, Ardo developed MIMOSA, an agronomy sustainability programme, to align crop production operations with environmental needs. It is an acronym for ‘Minimum Impact, Maximum Output Sustainable Agriculture’. Within the group, Guillaume is responsible for internal and external communication about the initiative.

The goal is to reduce the environmental impact of practices and inputs such as seed, fertiliser, plant protection products and water use. Simultaneously, we want to maximise crop yield and quality,” he explains. “Active Field Management is a key concept at Ardo: where our crop experts in the fields allow us to deliver the best advice to farmers to constantly optimise our crops.”

To improve crop resilience to climate change, Ardo created MIMOSA+. This 2.0 version goes beyond the crop itself. “Our strategy is more preventive than corrective. That is, if the plant is given optimal conditions, it has a better chance of reaching its full potential,” he explains. Ardo’s objective with MIMOSA+ is to secure yield and quality for its farmers and customers. These efforts will be evaluated in the coming years.

MIMOSA+ commitments

Water management is one of the actions included in the MIMOSA+ programme. The goal is to assess the water risk for all crops, use only renewable water sources, and use irrigation based on advice and risk analysis.

Another measure is the improvement of soil health, with Ardo striving to have all farmers practising regenerative agriculture principles by 2025. “The aim of this type of farming is to increase soil fertility. Meanwhile, by sequestrating carbon in the soil, regenerative agriculture aims to mitigate climate change,” Guillaume says. “We are also working to reduce the carbon footprint of our crops. Finally, we carry out environmental projects that improve local biodiversity, such as collaborations with beekeepers.”

Rapid digitalisation

Innovative crop management techniques

Ardo applies innovative crop management techniques in the field, which Guillaume is in charge of developing. Precision sowing, GPS steering, and camera-guided weed control are three examples of this. “We recently implemented a new technology to detect foreign objects in the field using drones. Based on a generated map, the contaminant is geo-located in our spinach crops before harvesting,” he says.

Increasing crop resilience to climate change

Since 2016, Ardo has reduced the use of fungicides by 28%. “We have achieved 76% residue-free vegetables as a result of our efforts to optimise crop management,” Guillaume reports. While MIMOSA has helped improve crop conditions, climate change has had a negative impact on crop volume and quality in recent years. “We had to react,” Guillaume continues, “because it is in our DNA to make a real difference.”

Because of Ardo’s shared passion and long-term vision, Guillaume is optimistic about the future. “Whilst our farmers are busy introducing our MIMOSA+ actions; these actions need to be quantified and promoted, especially given the market and climate variability. The group-wide introduction of a dedicated informatic platform will help us to achieve this.”

Guillaume refers to the implementation of Agreo, an IT software system that digitises crop monitoring and follow-up. He is most proud of the fact that the software is now operational at 11 out of 15 of Ardo’s production sites. “The advantages of centralisation include better traceability, communication between parties, and reporting. This enables us to improve our performance by learning from our real-time data.”