By combining local data, digital tools and farmer engagement, a new partnership in Argentina is working to close critical carbon data gaps andbuild transparent, low-carbon soy supply chains.
In a recent closed-door workshop hosted at the Sustainable Commodities and Landscape Forum in Amsterdam, sustainability leaders came together to explore how robust, verifiable data can accelerate large-scale carbon reduction across soy production and other key crops in Argentina. Facilitated by representatives from Bunge, Peterson Solutions, and Plataforma Puma, the session provided the opportunity to share lessons from a collaborative project designed to measure, validate, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in crop production, while improving farmers' market access, competitiveness and long-term resilience.
The collaboration, launched in 2023, aims to collect and validate large-scale primary data from farmers to more accurately reflect the true environmental performance of Argentine agriculture and strengthen Argentina's position in global sustainable trade. The program emerged in response to international market demands for verified, low-carbon agricultural products, and seeking to close a critical data gap for Argentine competitiveness.
The problem: default emission values used in global supply chain reporting dramatically misrepresented Argentine farming and ecosystemic realities
Default emissions values used in global supply chains often misrepresent Argentine farming realities. Generic global datasets portrayed Argentina as a high-emission producer and don’t fully reflect widespread sustainable practices such as no-tillage farming and deforestation-free sourcing. Some estimates suggest that generic calculations may overstate emissions by up to twenty times, partly because local data and practices are not captured.
The disconnect with on-the-ground realities was creating business consequences. Despite Argentina's strong sustainability credentials, some customers were hesitant to source from the region. The panellists said that the data didn't always reflect what was happening on the ground, leading to inaccurate, high emissions estimations.
Why Argentine soy appeared as a hotspot
The panellists argued that the issue wasn't the farming practices; it was the absence of reliable data. While farmers were implementing sustainable methods at scale, the lack of accessible, verifiable data meant those efforts remained invisible in global inventories. Unlike Brazil, where databases have better access to primary data, Argentina lacked the resources to provide accurate, region-specific emission factors to global databases.
For Bunge, positioned at the centre of the food supply chain, this presented both a problem and an opportunity. The company knew it needed robust, representative datasets that would provide a strong representation of actual farms across Argentina, rather than relying on just a couple of farms or a small pilot project.
As a supply chain company rather than a technology provider, Bunge sought partners with the expertise to build a scalable, consistent framework for collecting and validating farmer data. Peterson Solutions and Puma brought field expertise, market knowledge, and digital innovation to the table to create a credible foundation for carbon measurement and reduction.
Building the farmer value proposition
For the project team, engaging farmers proved to be as critical as the technical design. Farmers needed to understand both the importance of sharing data and the potential benefits of doing so.
First, many were unaware that global datasets were overlooking farms’ sustainable and ecosystem-based practices. Without farmer-supplied data, global systems would continue to assume high emissions. According to Peterson Solutions, in Argentina, more than 90% of farmers have adopted no-tillage practices, yet this was unvalidated.
Second, it was essential to translate sustainability into tangible value – through improved market access, potential price premiums, better financing conditions, and recognition for verified low-carbon production. The team emphasised that sustainability data is not only an environmental asset but also an economic one.
The project team noted that farmers were hesitant at first, particularly around data sharing, such as who they would share data with and how it would be used. Success required extensive engagement to build trust and demonstrate both the immediate and long-term value, including support for improving farming practices, strengthening climate resilience and reward verified sustainable practices.
The scale achieved
Early results indicate that large-scale primary data collection is possible:
Over 1 million hectares enrolled in 2024, with 0,93 million hectares approved and verified.
2.8 million hectares enrolled in 2025 (representing nearly 10% of Argentina's agricultural area)
All participating farms comply with the EUDR cut-off date of 2020.
90% of farms show no land-use change (LUC) since 2003 and therefore have no LUC emissions in their carbon accounting.
Comprehensive socio-environmental analyses covering wetlands, indigenous lands, and legal compliance.
Full digitalization across the supply chain as a key driver for traceability and scalability.
Crops include soybeans, maize, wheat and sunflower.
All emission reports are fully aligned with the GHG Protocol and ISO 14064 standards.
Preliminary findings suggest that when localised primary data is used, emission estimates for Argentine production may be significantly lower than default international values - up to 20 times less. This could help correct misperceptions and open new market opportunities for farmers.
Ensuring methodological robustness through interoperability
As the project scaled, maintaining precision became critical. Working together with Plataforma Puma, the team focused on developing the quality of data entering and exiting the calculator, while ensuring verification processes met rigorous standards.
The approach needed to accommodate the mixed digital maturity of farmers across Argentina. The project team aimed to support less digitalised producers with onboarding assistance and quality checks from customer success teams, while integrating technologically advanced farms through Puma's open APIs for faster, higher-volume data exchange.
By working closely with Plataforma Puma, the partners aimed to enhance data quality and build a transparent verification process aligned with international standards such as the GHG Protocol and ISO 14064.
The business case for action
For Bunge, this initiative was as much about advancing sustainable growth as competitiveness. High default emission factors were discouraging some buyers from sourcing Argentinian crops.
By developing credible, traceable data, the project seeks to provide a more accurate baseline for market engagement and support the credibility of sustainability and carbon-reduction claims.
Over time, this data foundation will not only strengthen Argentina’s position in sustainable, low-carbon trade but also enable companies to set meaningful reduction targets, identify credible decarbonisation opportunities, and enhance resilience and transparency across global supply chains.
Reflections from group discussion: challenges and opportunities ahead
Participants discussed several key themes during breakout sessions:
Additionality and moving beyond the baseline: While the project suggests that Argentine production has much lower emissions than default values suggest, the next challenge is advancing further. How can the industry move beyond establishing a fair baseline to achieving additional reductions?
Who pays for sustainability? Creating value and sharing it equitably across the value chain, from farmers to end customers, remains a central challenge for scaling sustainability initiatives. Group discussions revealed recurring questions about how costs and benefits are shared across the value chain. Participants agreed that while carbon reduction is critical, economic incentives must be aligned to sustain long-term engagement.
Resilience as the primary driver: Many participants noted that companies are increasingly focusing on supply chain resilience. This shift in framing may help unlock more investment in sustainability.
The traceability foundation: Even with robust primary data, challenges remain in traceability. Participants stressed that transparency not only improves emissions reporting but also strengthens supply chain stability and brand credibility. Ensuring that companies can trace products back to specific farms and practices is essential for validating claims and providing customers with the underlying evidence they need.
The emotional power of place: Nature-based strategies feel more emotionally compelling than abstract climate metrics, particularly when linked to specific geographies and supply chain tiers. This human element proved important for farmer engagement.
Moving forward: potential for expansion
According to the workshop discussions, the project is a promising measurement initiative and proof of concept with implications far beyond a single country. Built on a large-scale data infrastructure rather than a small pilot, it helps demonstrate how credible, farm-level data can drive transparency, comparability, and measurable impact across agricultural landscapes.
The team is now exploring opportunities to extend the framework to other producing regions, such as Brazil and Paraguay, while continuing to refine its interoperability and validation systems. Over time, this strong data foundation could serve as a platform for developing scalable regenerative agriculture projects, enabling more targeted carbon reduction strategies, ecosystem restoration, and resilience building across supply chains.
Key takeaways
Partnering is essential: Achieving this scale requires collaboration across technology providers, agricultural experts, and supply chain companies. No single organization can solve these challenges alone.
Localisation matters: Every ecosystem of farmers is different in terms of maturity, practices, and culture. Success requires partners deeply connected to local farming ecosystems who understand the reality on the ground and can adapt at scale while maintaining data quality.
Primary data at scale is feasible: What once took days to calculate for a single farm can now be done for hundreds of farms covering millions of hectares in months, not years.
Start with farmer value: Farmers need to understand both why their participation matters and what tangible benefits they'll receive.
Quality and speed can coexist: Through flexible approaches that meet farmers where they are, participants suggested that projects can scale rapidly without sacrificing data quality.
Disclaimer: This article summarises discussions that took place during a closed-door workshop held at the Sustainable Commodities and Landscape Forum in Amsterdam on Tuesday 21 October 2025. The content reflects information and insights as of that date. Interested in hosting a workshop with us?
