How to become a more sustainable fruit grower

Hortgro Resource and Sustainability Manager, Nitasha Baijnath-Pillay, shares her top 7 tips on how to become a more sustainable fruit grower:

• Have a long-term perspective: Long-term planning, continuous innovation and sufficient investment in research and development, adopting new technologies and best practices, promoting knowledge sharing and capacity building.
• Circularity: Adopting systems of production, processing and packaging that aim to create a closed-loop cycle, where waste and by-products are minimised, reused, or recycled back into the agricultural process (i.e. reducing reliance on non-renewable resources and minimizing your environmental footprint).
• Climate resilience: Use climate-smart agricultural practices, improved water management and sustainable land use.
• Economic resilience: Use more efficient production methods, diversify income streams, and value-added products, and access markets that value sustainable production.
• Environmental conservation: Apply practices that protect and enhance natural resources, including soil, water, air and biodiversity.
• Regulatory compliance and certification: Complying with relevant regulations and standards like the SIZA social and environmental standards.
• Social responsibility: Fostering healthy communities as far as possible and adding value to all our community stakeholder groups.