Syngenta announced this week that, over the coming three months, it will undertake consultation and engagement with stakeholders from around the world in an effort to build a shared vision for the future of sustainable agriculture. Through listening and dialogue, Syngenta is seeking to better understand the role it can play and the commitments needed from all sides to help make the shared vision a reality.

“We want to work together with stakeholders to build viable, productive and resilient farms using modern agricultural technologies to safely feed the world while taking care of the planet,” Syngenta chief sustainability officer Alexandra Brand said. “We will continue to provide farmers and rural communities with solutions to help them to thrive and deliver safe and nutritious food. Agriculture currently uses 70% of the world’s fresh water and is a major source of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Our products and solutions help address such challenges and improve outcomes for the environment, particularly soil health and biodiversity.”

In setting out why Syngenta is doing this now, Brand said, “It’s time to have a more direct and inclusive conversation to help rebuild the trust between society and science. As a company, we need to align our role with the roles of others and work in a way that continues to build society’s confidence in the farming and agricultural innovation sectors.”

Brand said the company wants to ensure that it is able to respond appropriately to the expectations of all of its stakeholders in order to move forward constructively and together. Building consensus on how different agricultural systems can help support delivery of the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals will be the base on which the listening sessions are built, she added.

“Once completed around the end of November 2018, we will be able to establish where we intend to focus our own efforts. Outcomes from the consultations will help form the basis of new commitments for achieving a future vision, together,” she said. “We will establish how to accelerate the development of products and technologies that can continue to meet the needs of small farmers, large farmers and society in the future. We will also translate our findings into the next evolution of our successful Good Growth Plan beyond 2020. We expect that by early next year, we will announce how we intend to move forward.”

Brand said the listening sessions will take different forms, including roundtables and one-on-one conversations. “Around the world, we will reach out directly to different groups and individuals who, together, represent a cross-section of those with a stake in the future of sustainable agriculture,” she said.