Agriculture

The Overall Environment of the Agricultural Sector

The agricultural sector, a major pillar of the global economy, must meet a twofold challenge: feeding an ever-growing population and accelerating its transition to more sustainable production models. Around the world, stakeholders in the agricultural sector are exposed to climate risks, volatility in commodity prices, and increased regulatory pressure.

Farms must optimize their productivity, reduce their environmental footprint, and secure their markets. Manufacturers and processors must adapt their supply chains, manage risks, and ensure impeccable quality. And the rise of agritech and digital technologies is opening up new opportunities for optimization, while requiring rapid modernization of practices and infrastructure.

Agricultural supply chains must also meet growing expectations regarding traceability, transparency, and social responsibility. Issues related to water management, soil regeneration, energy efficiency, and performance management are becoming central to ensuring the sector’s long-term competitiveness. All stakeholders, from agricultural cooperatives to private-sector customers, play a key role in supporting farmers through these transitions.

In this context, continuous improvement, process optimization, and operational agility are becoming key drivers for strengthening the resilience of agricultural supply chains. Supporting industry stakeholders in this transition by building efficient and resilient supply chains, the development of Operational Excellence, the securing of supply chains, and the adoption of sustainable practices, is a strategic priority for building an efficient, competitive, and responsible agricultural sector.

  • Anaïs Riffiod

    Directrice générale Cubik Agri

Challenges in the as seen by Cubik

20 %

The agricultural sector accounts for 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions (FAO)

A sector that is closely linked to an entire ecosystem: soils, water resources, biodiversity, societies…

The agricultural and life sciences sectors are at the heart of a wide range of challenges: resource and biodiversity management, health and nutrition, the standard of living of small-scale producers, market access, and financing…

In this context, it is necessary to adopt a holistic approach to ensure not only the financial viability and economic performance of the projects undertaken, but also the project’s overall impact across all dimensions, including water management, soil regeneration, animal welfare, and value sharing among the various stakeholders in the sector…

Agricultural systems capable of producing more efficiently and sustainably

This transformation is all the more essential given that the agricultural sector bears a unique responsibility: it feeds people while being directly dependent on the resources it must protect. This calls for a comprehensive vision in which operational efficiency, economic management, risk management, and environmental sustainability reinforce one another.

Building resilience across the entire value chain

Agricultural sectors are operating in an environment where uncertainties are more frequent and more severe: extreme weather events, water scarcity, volatility in input markets, increasingly complex logistics, new regulatory requirements, pressure on margins… In this context, improving just one link has never been enough. We must strengthen the entire chain—from production to processing—by integrating operational, human, and environmental considerations.

1.7 billion

Number of people affected by land degradation (deforestation, overgrazing, unsustainable practices, etc.) worldwide

How We Help Our Clients Overcome Their Challenges

At Cubik, we help stakeholders involved in the sourcing of living organisms to enhance the resilience of their upstream supply chains by focusing on the coherence of the entire system: supply chain structuring, operational efficiency, coordination among various stakeholders, technical support, team engagement and training…

We are convinced that agricultural performance is built collectively, patiently, and sustainably in order to create models capable of:

  • Develop more flexible models of cooperation among producers, cooperatives, manufacturers, and local communities.
  • identify and reduce inefficiencies that hinder productivity and quality,
  • better manage costs and risks in a highly volatile environment,
  • protect the soil, water, and biodiversity that are essential to the sustainability of these sectors,
  • develop the teams’ technical skills and adaptability,
  • secure supplies and strengthen trust among partners,

Our approach, which is based on a comprehensive understanding of agricultural value chains, aims to provide you with concrete solutions to improve your performance and generate a real, measurable, and sustainable impact.

By combining our industry and consulting expertise, we support you both locally and internationally in developing agricultural systems capable of producing more efficiently, adapting to climate change, and ensuring the long-term availability of strategic supplies.

Our 6 areas of support:

Any project related to agricultural supply chains requires a preliminary assessment to take stock of the situation: visiting the field, consulting with the various stakeholders involved, understanding sourcing practices…

We evaluate agricultural practices toidentify areas for improvement and apply Lean methods to agriculture to enhance the economic and environmental performance of your production facilities.

  • Assess agricultural practices and supply chains toidentify opportunities for improvement and enhance their sustainable and economic performance.
  • Analyze the diversity of production systems and their impacts (CO2, water, biodiversity) using a structured assessment framework and specific KPIs, combined with on-site assessments.
  • Map the stakeholders to identify the key players in the industry and their contributions, and analyze the sector’s challenges and associated risks.
  • Define the level of ambition for sustainable sourcing, identify drivers for progress, and steer the transition and scaling-up of responsible procurement.

Once the preliminary assessment has been completed and the priority action areas identified, the next essential step is to structure the project and develop a sector-wide approach, always from an economically realistic perspective. To this end, we develop agronomic and financial models for large-scale greenfield projects, define the level of ambition for sustainable sourcing, and identify the levers for progress and for steering the transition trajectory and scaling up responsible procurement.

We work with you to identify the strategic supply chain issues you’re struggling to manage: sourcing, low volumes, lack of traceability, operator opacity, market pressures…

To do this, we apply our proven methodology:

  • Analysis of the Current Situation and Field-Based Approach
  • Operational and strategic security recommendations (contractual arrangements, relocation, strategic partnerships, etc.)
  • Action Plans That Take Scalability Into Account

The key to a successful sustainable sourcing initiative is the ability to manage it over time and provide evidence of what has been implemented over the long term. The concept of impact measurement is essential for demonstrating the success of a project whose challenges are sometimes difficult to grasp.

To this end, we establish key performance indicators to track progress over time and quantify the benefits of the sustainable transition for all stakeholders in the relevant sectors.

Our expertise in the agricultural, food, and agribusiness sectors enables us to support teams in their transition from a agricultural mindset to a true industrial mindset​ to tangibly improve the operational efficiency of their activities:

  • Trainingfor front-line managers in their day-to-day duties: standard schedule, manager’s rounds, team leadership, etc.
  • Supporting managers as they adapt their approach: coaching and facilitation, problem-solving​
  • Supporting executive committees in managing their strategic projects.