Investing in sustainability – ours and farmers’

Investing in sustainability – ours and farmers’

Our company embeds sustainability into its strategy – reducing emissions while controlling cost, for example, and ensuring that every product in our pipeline meets at least one of the 12 stringent criteria for sustainability, from human health to water usage.

And every day, we invest nearly $4 million in innovation: our 5,000 scientists work to bring groundbreaking technology to market that helps farmers grow more food (and fuel) per hectare – and do so in ways that are more sustainable than ever before.

$4 million

invested every day in innovation

>5,000 colleagues

dedicated to finding and delivering next-generation innovation

Three farmers standing in a flowering canola field reviewing information on their mobile devices.
Three farmers standing in a flowering canola field reviewing information on their mobile devices.

We also believe sustainability starts at our sites – with safety. Supporting our employees in going home in the same condition they came to work is our number one priority. We are incredibly proud of the fact that, in 2025, we recorded zero serious injuries and zero fatalities.

Home is also community, and this year, our nearly 22,000 employees logged over 45,000 volunteer hours, and the company provided $2 million in funding to support 100 food security organizations around the world. 

In Eastern Europe, through our TalentA program, we supported more than 150 rural women by providing training, mentoring, technical knowledge, and small-grant financing to help them build competitive and sustainable agribusinesses. 

And in India, as part of our 2MillionWomen in agriculture program, we helped train over 100,000 women through farmer producer organizations, offered over 500 opportunities in STEM education to young women, and delivered over 3 million meals to schools and rural communities.

Two scientists in white lab coats and black gloves inspect tall green corn plants in an indoor agricultural research facility.

Market-leading innovation

We are also proud to have built a business that is home to market-leading innovation. For example, two of our crop protection products – Reklemel™ active and Rinskor™ active – have won awards for their sustainability advantages.

Utrisha™ N, part of our nature-based biologicals portfolio, is a natural bacterium that enhances a plant’s use of nutrients, including nitrogen, which improves crop productivity throughout the growing season. This, combined with additional work focused on biodiversity, is helping us maintain our 25 million acre biodiversity goal.

A global leader

In our Seed business, we are a leader in plant genetics and are now leveraging gene editing, which promises to transform agriculture, in part because it allows us to imagine a more food-secure future. We believe that gene editing can make every crop more abundant and more sustainably grown.

We’ve designed an industry-leading ecosystem around the science, which we call Genlytix™. It encompasses our in-house capabilities and capacity, our global stewardship efforts, and our strategic partnerships. All of this is focused on enabling gene editing and its future role in plant breeding, including precision to improve yield, disease resistance, as well as tolerance to drought and heat. 

A smiling female scientist in a white lab coat, safety glasses, and blue gloves uses a pipette in a laboratory setting.

How innovation helps feed and fuel a growing population more sustainably

As the world moves to adding 2 billion people over the next quarter century1, agricultural innovation—such as nature-based biologicals, high-yielding Pioneer® seeds, and nematicides that help protect beneficial organisms in the soil—becomes more critical than ever before. Farmers worldwide have boosted their harvests by an average of 30% over the past 20 years, often using fewer resources and with less of an environmental impact.  As groundbreaking innovations like gene editing and AI-enabled agronomy take hold, we believe the future will be even brighter than the past. 

Without crop
innovation, farmers needed

Graphic that illustrates that due to innovation advancements, farmers needed 7.8 acres to grow 200 bushels of corn in the US in 1926, while they only need about 1.1 acres to grow the same amount today

to grow 200 bushels of corn (US 1926) 

With advancements,
farmers now need only

Graphic that illustrates that due to innovation advancements, farmers needed 7.8 acres to grow 200 bushels of corn in the US in 1926, while they only need about 1.1 acres to grow the same amount today

to grow 200 bushels of corn (US 2025) 

  • U.S. Census Bureau, Census Bureau Projects U.S. and World Populations on New Year’s Day (2024); FAO, Better land, soil and water management key to feeding 10 billion people (2025).

  • USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, Crop Production Historical Track Records (2025); USDA NASS, Crop Production 2025 Summary (2026).

The journey to achieve this

A black-and-white photo of two men loading large bags of seed into a vintage four-row trailing planter in a field.

1950s-1980s

Introduction of synthetic pesticides and other agriculture technologies

Two scientists, one in a green polo and one in a white lab coat, examine rows of tagged seedlings in a greenhouse.

1990s-2000s

Introduction of genetically-modified crops and biotech traits

A male scientist in a white lab coat and blue gloves inspects a small plant seedling while holding a tablet in a large, brightly lit research greenhouse.

2020s and beyond

Acceleration of gene editing and biological products