Eni, BF SpA and Coldiretti sign a cooperation agreement for joint sustainable development initiatives in Africa

The parties will evaluate projects to diversify local economies through sustainable and advanced agriculture techniques with a reduced impact on the ecosystem.

The President of Coldiretti, Ettore Prandini, the CEO of Eni, Claudio Descalzi, and the CEO of BF SpA, Federico Vecchioni, in the presence of the Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, signed a cooperation agreement for the start of evaluation activities on specific initiatives abroad, and in particular in Africa, relating to development projects of local economies through the application of innovative and sustainable agricultural techniques in full compliance with the reference ecosystems.

The agreement was defined following and in line with the spirit of the partnership signed on July 5 between the Coldiretti National Confederation and Eni, which establishes areas of collaboration in the circular economy, with particular regard to the energy and agricultural sectors, agri-food and zootechnical, through the identification of specific initiatives. BF SpA, the only Italian agro-industrial group listed on the stock exchange, will make available its ability to generate value and qualify the territories through all its companies active in the seed sector, applied technology, up to the production of quality food, for the creation of integrated supply chains with a high content of innovation and sustainability. Eni will share its experience in the implementation of sustainable development projects of local communities, in the context of the circular economy and renewable energy, promoting the transfer of knowledge and stimulating the development of entrepreneurial systems.

As part of the agreement, Eni, BF SpA and Coldiretti intend to evaluate, as a priority, a first collaboration applicable in Ghana (Ghana Project). The Ghana Project, an initiative developed by Eni in partnership with the local government, is a pilot project aimed at creating lasting development in particularly depressed areas of the country, through the creation of a training center for agricultural development and entrepreneurial realities in which subsequently insert the trained resources, promoting the creation of an entrepreneurial fabric linked to agricultural activities. The project provides for the assignment of a daily allowance to students for the entire training period, with compulsory attendance. The Ghana Project, thanks to the identification of specific indicators associated with it, enables the replicability of the project on a larger scale in other regions of Ghana as in other countries of sub-Saharan Africa.

"The goal is to export a development model that focuses on enhancing local realities, exploiting the potential of the family business and thus supporting small producers in the southern hemisphere, threatened by the distortion in food production and distribution systems that favors the land grabbing and causes the escape from the countryside to the richer countries where suffering and marginalization often await them" underlined the President of Coldiretti, Ettore Prandini.

The Chief Executive Officer of BF SpA, Federico Vecchioni, said: "Implementing programs for the spread of sustainable agriculture that increases the production of quality food for an ever-growing world population in a context of decreasing arable land: this is the global challenge of the future. Having said this, BF SpA, which represents the most important national reality in the agro-industrial sector, has the duty to contribute with its skills to making Africa a great laboratory for sustainability and innovation applied to agriculture. The creation of modern integrated agricultural supply chains, the transfer to the younger generations of the know-how for sustainable and innovative agriculture are among the objectives of BF SpA for the Ghana Project, which wants to contribute to the reduction of food and climate emergencies and the endemic lack of work and the future that still afflicts a part of the country today".

Eni's CEO, Claudio Descalzi, he has declared: "We have established an innovative partnership. A model of cooperation that through competences and technology responds to two essential needs for our time: the need to contribute in a sustainable way to the social and economic development of local communities in developing countries, and, at the same time, to the promotion of an increasingly sustainable energy production model based on decarbonisation. These are vital issues for the planet, epochal challenges, where our contribution will become even more significant when the principles applied here will become system principles. Eni, in particular, through this agreement achieves a twofold objective: renewing its commitment to promoting local development initiatives in the countries in which it operates, and taking a further and important step to favor the emergence of an increasingly efficient economic system and circular".

 

Eni, BF SpA and Coldiretti sign a cooperation agreement for joint sustainable development initiatives in Africa

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