Working together to deliver results for our Spanish growers and the environment

22 April 2022

Working together to deliver results for our Spanish growers and the environment

We’re always working with our growers and partners to ensure sugar beet can continue to grow in the most sustainable way by improving techniques and practices, education, and technology solutions.

For over 50 years, our Spanish business Azucarera, together with around 1,800 sugar beet growers, have been supporting and funding the work of The Association for Research on the improvement of Sugar Beet Cultivation (AIMCRA) and Agroteo, who offer a range of services to increase beet sugar yields, as well as offering tailored administrative support on areas such as insurance, securing competitive prices for agriculture produces and labour.

The best yield results in sugar beet hectare in the EU

So, how do we do it?

The relationships with AIMCRA and Agroteo have led to many successful initiatives and partnerships covering areas such as research and development, technology choices, improved agronomy practices and seed testing, as well as exploring pest control and plant disease applications and new solutions, and much more. Below are just a sample of some of these initiatives:

Precision agriculture: Using data and remote sensing systems to inform decisions on how our growers manage all aspects of their crop based on live climatic and soil conditions. Areas such as how and when to apply nitrogen fertilizer, techniques to reduce water consumption, adjusting decisions on sowing, growing and harvesting the crop, through to technology choices, all to ensure the best outcome of the crop and avoid unnecessary consumption of resources.To deepen the benefits of precision agriculture, in the coming year’s (2022/23) sugar beet campaign, Azucarera are running three grower pilot projects on differing ways to sow the sugar beet seed in the locations of Toro, La Bañeza and Guadalete. Early results indicate there could be on average, savings of 30€ per hectare in seeds.
Grower training: Together with Agroteo, a range of courses are provided, including training requirements that have been established in the ‘Agri-Environment & Climate Aids’; covering areas such as protection and improvement of biodiversity, soil, water usage, landscape, air quality and climate impacts. In 2021, over 600 growers attended training workshops and/or meetings. To compliment this training, Agroteo also supports growers to not only improve their sugar beet crop yields, but also offers services such as ensuring timely grower payments for their crop, securing competitive prices for the products needed to grow sugar beet, as well as promoting new services and to procure and interpret data to make a difference in the field.
Tackling pest control and disease with research: Research initiatives are continuously looking at ways in which we can mitigate the impact disease and pests can have on sugar beet crops, growers’ livelihoods and the environment; ranging from efficient use of plant protection products and reducing use of herbicides, insecticides and fungicides, ways to improve soil health, and much more. Some of this work has also been undertaken in collaboration with the Polytechnic University of Madrid.
Boosting of solar-panelled irrigation pumps through a grower education campaign in field and classroom that considers the latest irrigation technology, data from satellites and local weather stations – reducing the reliance on diesel fuelled pumps and harnessing the suns power. Find out more here.

Working together with AIMCRA, Agroteo and our growers is an example of us all having a common goal to improve our crop yields and profitability, overall health of our fields and wider environment and secure the long-term future of growing sugar beet within rural, agricultural areas of Spain. By working together, you can truly make a difference.

Watch Agroteo Manager, Ana García Zamarreño talk how the organisation is helping growers to be more efficient and fight climate change through precision agriculture efforts.