Participating organizations
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Context
The Brazilian Cerrado, located predominantly on Brazil’s Central Plateau, is the second-largest biome in the country, spanning over 198 million hectares. The 38 million hectares of degraded pasture land in the Cerrado causes social, economic and environmental losses through negative impacts on soil and the creation of soil erosion. Combined with climate change, the degradation of pastures makes pasture-based dairy farmers vulnerable: low profitability and productivity create a generational succession challenge, which threatens the continuity of dairy farming in the medium and long term.
Promoting integrated crop-livestock-forestry production systems (ICLF), whereby agricultural production integrates with animal farming and forestry through agroforestry, intercropping, crop rotations and rotational grazing, can optimize land use, enhance overall productivity, improve soil fertility, diversify income streams, and promote the ecological resilience of a farm. Rede ILPF, a public-private organization formed by agribusinesses and the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA), advances ICLF implementation in the Cerrado by providing training on integrated farming to farmers, rural extensionists and financial sector representatives.
hectares is the area of the Brazilian Cerrado
hectares are degraded pasture land in the Cerrado
Key facts
Ambition of the project
Launched in 2019, the Flora Journey (Jornada Flora) develops and promotes regenerative agricultural production models that are environmentally friendly, socially fair and profitable through the establishment of a regenerative system for pasture-based milk production that benefits farmland, farmers and animals in the Brazilian Cerrado by 2030.
Flora Journey aims to address dairy farmer challenges – including low efficiency and profitability and high carbon footprints – as well as business risks such as future security of supply. Flora Journey started with a pilot supporting farmer adoption of Voisin-style rotational grazing that has since scaled to a model promoting ICLF systems to rebuild soil health and reduce soil erosion, improve soil nitrogen fixation and carbon sequestration, restore biodiversity and reduce needs for mineral fertilizers and crop protection products, while improving farms’ feed self-sufficiency, economics and animal welfare along the way.
Flora Journey has three core pillars: people, planet and animals. Across the three pillars, Danone Brazil has established partnerships with local financial institutions, research organizations and specialized training centers to work collaboratively on shared objectives.
The program at a glance
Farmers can request to participate in Flora Journey directly through the farm management team. Farmers receive technical assistance and financial support to implement regenerative practices and improve pasture management. Each farmer involved in the program receives a bespoke package of technical assistance based on their needs and technological maturity to work towards the people, animals and planet objectives Flora Journey aims to achieve (see Table 1). With many stakeholders supporting the delivery of multiple objectives, the partnerships aren’t undertaken in silos; farmers can select which programs to join based on their needs.
Table 2: Flora Journey’s core partnerships
People: Generate income in rural areas, create productivity and efficiency gains
Animals: Promote animal welfare and enhance milk quality
Planet: Reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and soybean meal use, ensure use of deforestation- and conversion-free (DCF) soybean meal
The program made a first investment, to create a demonstration farm located at Fazenda Gordura in Guaranésia, Minas Gerais, in 2020. This facility now serves as a teaching farm for Danone’s partner farmers, where they can participate in field trips, learn about the benefits and engage other farmers and farms to expand this partnership chain. Farmers participate in training programs, field days and technical visits, fostering peer-to-peer knowledge exchange between farmers.
Financing model
Danone has directly funded Flora Journey’s efforts since the beginning. To support farmers in regenerating pastures, one of the program’s key activities is to facilitate access to rural credit through a partnership with Banco do Brasil. The bank is making BRL $100 million available in 2025, doubling the investment made in 2024, through subsidized credit lines aimed at farm investments and working capital. Plano Safra (Harvest Plan), a government program that aims to support Brazilian agriculture, and specifically small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), mobilizes the capital.
To provide greater security for milk suppliers, Danone operates a “fresh” milk supply contract guaranteeing volume and purchase terms, thus providing farmers with transparency, allowing them to better plan their production. By ensuring predictability and financial security for growers, Flora Journey enables farmers to access rural credit.
To further encourage sustainable production and support climate mitigation efforts, the program offers an ESG Bonus. Farmers who achieve a carbon footprint emissions factor reduction greater than 10% compared to the previous year and who reach an emissions factor below the Danone Brazil benchmark benefit from this bonus.
“Without the credit, I wouldn’t have been able to build the milking station or achieve the productivity gains. With the new compost barn system, I was able to increase production by three liters per cow, which means 180 extra liters per day. In addition, the animals’ well-being has improved significantly, and that directly reflects in the milk quality.”
– Áureo Cássio de Carvalho, partner dairy farmer in the program, Santa Rita de Caldas (MG)
Sustainable production as good business for farmers
The program generates benefits such as increased productivity, cost reduction, access to technologies, and added value to sustainable production, demonstrating that sustainability is economically beneficial for farmers.
It supports farmers in generating cost savings through reductions in inputs (such as chemical fertilizers), lower dependence on external inputs through regenerative pasture management (including reduced purchases of soybean meal and identifying a variety of alternatives for soy in animal feed, such as cottonseed), and through the optimization of natural resource use.
Although farmers may incur additional costs – such as those related to increased or more qualified labor – Flora Journey has witnessed a positive business case for farmers, with a 20% increase in daily milk productivity among participating farms.
More specifically, an analysis conducted by Labor Rural and SEBRAE shows that farmers engaged in Flora Journey have increased production and efficiency and also have a lower carbon footprint. Data from several farms indicate that those emitting less CO₂ equivalent per liter of milk had lower operational costs, highlighting that production efficiency links directly to both profitability and sustainability.
Table 3: Objectives and progress monitored per impact area
