PepsiCo Library donation ceremony Photo: Courtesy of PepsiCo

China's Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) and PepsiCo Foods (China) Co Ltd (PepsiCo) jointly organized a two-day training course on sustainable potato farming and modern farm management in Erdos, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.  Experts from PepsiCo provided professional training for nearly 20 agro-technicians and large-scale farm management professionals from more than five provinces and autonomous regions to promote the sustainable development of potato farming in China.

In September 2011, PepsiCo and the MOA signed an memorandum of understanding (MOU) under which the two sides pledged to make joint efforts to promote advanced production and management techniques and implement modern farms construction in China. Based on four-years of beneficial partnerships, PepsiCo and the MOA renewed the MOU in December 2015, aiming to promote sustainable agriculture plantation and modern farm management technologies in China by leveraging international advanced technologies and experiences surrounding target industries of potato and oats, thus providing good references for the research and implementation of sustainable agriculture plantation mode.This professional training held in Inner Mongolia is an important part of the cooperation in the renewed MOU signed by PepsiCo and MOA. So far, the two sides have held three relevant trainings benefiting nearly 100 agro-technicians from around the country.

As a global leader in the food and beverage business, PepsiCo has a full range of global sustainable agricultural policies throughout the upstream and downstream of farmland. By sharing their experience, PepsiCo hopes to help the farmers to obtain new technologies, prevent the land from being desertification, bring rotation into plantations to reconstruct the soil fertility, and the most importantly,  promote the water and energy conservation irrigation and system. PepsiCo's demonstration farm will be the valuable role model for local land utilization as well as a focus for future plantations based on the science and the concept of sustainability.

PepsiCo entered the Chinese market more than 30 years ago. Over the past decade, more than 10,000 farmers have benefited from the advanced technologies and cooperative projects PepsiCo has helped introduced to China.

"We at PepsiCo attach great importance to the development of sustainable agriculture. Through our long-term cooperation with the MOA, we hope to share the best-in-class practices with China and make our due contributions to the development of sustainable and modern agriculture in China," said Katty Lam, the chairwoman of PepsiCo Greater China Region (GCR).

In addition to support the sustainable development of China's agriculture, PepsiCo has also been actively giving back to the local communities and stepped up its efforts to support China's education courses. During a visit to a local primary school near the PepsiCo potato farm, after the Inner Mongolia training, PepsiCo announced to donate $100,000 to China Women's Development Foundation to carry out the "2016 PepsiCo Library" project, which will further improve the learning conditions of primary schools located close to PepsiCo potato farms. The donation will be used to purchase computers, new books, desks, bookshelves and teaching equipment, which is expected to benefit 3,300 teachers and students from eight "PepsiCo Library" schools in Guangdong Province, Gansu Province,  Hebei Province, Shandong Province, and Inner Mongolia.

"PepsiCo Library" is a charity initiative that kicked off in 2007 by PepsiCo GCR, by the donation of books, reading desks, chairs, library facilities and funds to improve the teaching condition in rural schools located close to the PepsiCo demonstration potato farms in China.  By the end of 2015, PepsiCo GCR has built several libraries and one kindergarten in Hebei Province, Guangxi Province, Shandong Province, Guangdong Province, Hubei Province, Gansu Province and Inner Mongolia, with total grants of more than 2.9 million yuan. The program collects used books and donations from employees in PepsiCo GCR, which then go to fund scholarships and the "PepsiCo Reading Stars" program to award outstanding students,  and  encourage reading and writing.

As part of PepsiCo's commitment to the communities, PepsiCo Foundation and PepsiCo  have been actively supporting a range of public welfare programs in recent years. Programs includes a 15-year association with Water Cellars for Mothers, delivering clean-water access to people in water-stressed regions of central and western China; the "PepsiCo Nutrition in Action" program, to improve nutrition and health for poverty-stricken students in Yunnan Province. Employees at the plant participate in the local educational charity programs, and farm level programs benefiting the immediate communities in which we operate; and also emergency disaster relief in times of natural disasters.  As of today, a public welfare donation made by PepsiCo and PepsiCo associates here in China has already exceeded 140 million yuan.