Team up with the Partnership for Ag Resource Management!
Agriculture-related water quality impairments continue to impact swimming, fishing and access to clean drinking water in many of our communities. For example, in the Western Lake Erie Basin, algal blooms as becoming more frequent and severe. The Gulf of Mexico’s hypoxic zone continues to remain much larger than Hypoxia Task Force goal of 5000 square kilometers. In the EPA’s 2015 Report to Congress, scientists found agricultural inputs (i.e., fertilizers, manure) as the largest contributing nitrogen and phosphorus pollution sources to the Gulf.
Our unique solution
Our Partnership for Ag Resource Management (PARM) team works closely with agricultural retailers to identify, promote, track and report on products and services that reduce fertilizer losses from cropland, ensuring cleaner water for drinking and recreating.
Why do we focus on retailers? Ag retailers function as trusted advisers to their farmer clients, visiting customer fields multiple times annually. These professionals can identify key opportunities for improvement in soil health, nutrient retention and other key issues.
PARM is a project of the IPM Institute of North America Inc., a nonprofit focused on market-based solutions to improve sustainability in agriculture and communities. We currently partner with 90 retail locations representing over 5.3 million acres in the Great Lakes and Upper Mississippi River Basins. Our participants include Nutrien, The Andersons, Sunrise Cooperative, Heritage Cooperative and more. See our full list here.
PARM surveys retailers annually to track:
Farmer adoption of products and services such as cover crops, which absorb excess fertilizers, and variable rate technology, where fertilizer is applied based on soil test needs rather than broadcasted across fields.
Dealer and customer barriers to beneficial product/service adoption.
Profitability of retail-offered products/services.
By tracking and reporting this information, we can understand what educational resources are needed at individual locations to increase sales and what financial support programs would be most effective to get customers to try a product or service.
Benefits to you
By partnering with us, you can highlight your commitment to supporting nonprofit on-the-ground sustainable work that impacts 5.3 million acres of farm fields throughout the Great Lakes and Upper Mississippi River Basins.
Retailers often describe translating and presenting the benefits of sustainable practices to customers as a tough challenge. By supporting our nonprofit effort, you can increase your visibility as a supporter of sustainable agriculture to our participating retailers, the ag retail industry, regulators and the public. You will support delivery of educational tools and resources to direct influencers of on-farm practices; incentive programs that help farmers try new practices and support the learning curve; and our annual survey development, recruitment and analysis that helps the ag industry and affiliates understand vital product, service and practice adoption and impacts.
Sponsorship options
Bronze Level: $1000 annual contribution
Published logo on PARM’s annual ag retailer products and services survey report, providing data from ag retail locations on volunteer pollution reduction efforts. The following sectors distribute our survey to their members and collaborators: agribusinesses, state agricultural departments, university/extension, trade industries like The Fertilizer Institute and Field to Market, soil and water conservation districts and more!
This level supports our team’s ability to track and report on farmer practices throughout the US and to analyze what our industry can do to improve and reward efforts.
Silver Level: $2500 annual contribution
Bronze benefits, plus;
Your logo advertised on each of our webinars throughout the year (approximately seven). Receive an optional five-minute introduction time on one of the webinars to introduce your company, product or service to an audience which averages approximately 400 per webinar! Our audience consists of ag retail management/agronomists/CCAs, independent consultants, producers, agribusinesses, state and federal agencies, watershed organizations, manufacturers, nonprofits, research institutions and more!
This level supports our team in developing educational resources that help move the needle on advancing conservation adoption.
Gold Level: $5000 annual contribution
Bronze and Silver benefits, plus;
Your company logo published at field day events and workshops attended by ag retailers and their farmer customers as well as landowners, agribusinesses and other partners.
Promotion of your company, product or service in our newsletters and mailings sent to over 7000 industry contacts.
This level supports the team’s ability to provide incentive programs to retailers who in turn offer free or discounted acres for a certain product or service (e.g., cover crops) to customers. Our programs have been such a success, that retailers have started to offer their own self-funded incentive packages based on customer adoption!
What Members and Participants are Saying About Us!
“[The] world of retail agronomy will continue to experience rapid changes and shocks. The work of PARM will be important to help the group advance in such changing times” — Cliff Love, Tompkins County Soil & Water Conservation District, NY
Survey reports
“Estimated nutrient loss reduction based on sales of products and services is the greatest tool of all. I look at the whole membership idea as an advertising expense to our business and to PARM as a legitimate respected accreditation group.” — Mark Gaerte, silver member & application manager from Gaerte Ag Service LLC.
Educational resources
“The webinars that are presented are always very good, I appreciate the very valuable topics and the options to get CEU’s at the same time, all of it leads to a great experience.” — Scott Schneider, Scott County Soil & Water Conservation District, MN
“Practices listed on PARM’s wallet card as “Do” are supported by work from the 4R Research Fund. That work shows use of conservation practices with P fertilizer incorporation controls P losses better than fertilizer rate reductions.” — Sally Flis, director of agronomy, The Fertilizer Institute
“I have been viewing webinars regarding cover crops for almost a year, PARM’s was one of the better ones. I think as research continues, the data and information presented in cover crop webinars improves.” — Steve Fenton, warehouse operations manager, Monsanto
“I value the webinar subjects offered by PARM. They relate to current topics and needs.” — Greg Burris, agronomist, Central Ohio Farmers Co-op, Inc.
Incentive programs
“Growers that got started with VRT because of PARM’s cost-share program have paid for additional VRT acres after seeing the benefits.” — Phil Bowsher, plant manager, The Andersons, Inc.
“PARM’s VRT program has gotten many people to soil sample and apply according to needs. This is what we have needed for years.” — Lee Orians, agronomist, Heritage Cooperative
