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Ajinomoto Co and Danone have announced a global strategic partnership aimed at reducing multiple sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the milk supply chain.
The initiative uses Ajinomoto’s lysine formulation AjiPro-L, which in addition to aiding in the absorption of the amino acids, is also cost-effective and a broad-ranging GHG reduction method.
The collaboration is part of Danone's ‘Partner for Growth’ programme and will see both companies work together to reduce GHG emissions from milk production.
AjiPro-L effectively delivers lysine, an essential amino acid, to the cow's digestive system, where it can be absorbed as a nutrient. The product helps reduce feed costs for farmers and reduces a broad spectrum of GHG emissions.
The solution reduces the amount of high-protein, high-cost feed, such as soybean meal, which contains excessive amino acids, in cow's diets, while maintaining milk production. It also reduces the carbon footprint associated with procuring soybean meal as a protein source by approximately 20%, while it decreases nitrous oxide emissions from manure by around 25%.
In-vitro studies have shown that amino acid-balanced feed with AjiPro-L, in combination with a methane reduction additive, can amplify the effect of the methane reduction additive by approximately 30% and is expected to contribute substantially to reducing methane emissions from cow's belches.
Sumio Maeda, executive officer, VP and general manager of Ajinomoto’s Bio & Fine Chemicals division, commented: “Leveraging our expertise in amino acids, we developed the AjiPro-L solution to help reduce feed costs and GHG emissions not only for our partners but for the entire dairy and beef industry”.
Jean-Yves Krummenacher, chief procurement officer at Danone, said: “With partners like Ajinomoto, we are expanding our toolkit of solutions that we bringing to our dairy farmers that have a dual effect – on the one hand reducing on-farm GHG emissions while, on the other, supporting farmers to improve their margin, and as a result, boost their resilience.”
Both companies have signed a MoU and efforts are underway to introduce the solution to Danone's contracted farmers in Spain, Brazil and the US, as well as to Danone's own farmers in Egypt and Morocco.
In the future, Ajinomoto and Danone will work to incorporate the solution into tools for quantifying GHG reductions.
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