Members projects

With over 20 million people working in sugarcane agriculture and sugar production, The Guangxi Autonomous Region is crucial for China’s sugar industry. Starting in 2009, the region experienced a drought of historic proportions. This created not only shortages of safe drinking water in local communities, but also threatened to devastate livelihoods predominately supported by sugarcane farming. The drought exposed critical sustainability issues in Guangxi's existing infrastructural facilities and agricultural model, as given the area’s unpredictable weather patterns, a similar drought is likely to happen again in the future.

To address these issues, the Coca-Cola Foundation, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and various key Chinese government agencies launched The Guangxi Sustainable Sugarcane Initiative in late 2010. The Partnership objectives include establishing demonstration sites using enhanced water efficiency irrigation methods that have the potential to scale and replicate throughout China. The initiative will also focus on recycling treated wastewater from sugar plants to improve farm production and water use efficiency, while providing clean water facilities which have a positive impact on the living conditions of sugarcane farmers and their families.

The five-year program is Coca-Cola’s first sustainable agriculture project in China, and directly impacts the lives of over 100,000 rural residents. The program is expected to replenish at least 500,000,000 liters of water annually to local communities, while impacting government policy development for sustainable agriculture practices nationwide.

With one-fifth of the world’s growing population, China faces an unprecedented need for sustainable solutions to agricultural production and water management. This project will improve the crops yields and the livelihoods of thousands of farmers while providing access to safe water, addressing a crucial need for the region and country at large.