BASEL, Switzerland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov 17, 2025--
Syngenta's REVERTE ® program has been recognized as best-in-class in Transforming Agriculture and Food Systems by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD).
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REVERTE ® aims to restore degraded pasturelands and avert the need to clear native vegetation in agriculture. It offers farmers a viable, long-term framework that includes access to agronomic expertise and financing, while requiring strict compliance on environmental criteria. To date, 280,000 hectares – an area slightly larger than New York City and London combined – is being restored under this program, spanning 11 states and 3 biomes across Brazil. 92% of monitored farms have seen yield increases between their first and second year of implementation, averaging 9% growth.
Petra Laux, Chief Sustainability Officer at Syngenta Group, said: “REVERTE ® is one of the world’s most ambitious programs to restore degraded land for agriculture. Its success in Brazil is proof that strong ideals, great partners, and hard work can come together to address difficult challenges in agriculture and global food systems.” Syngenta has set a target of recovering 1 million hectares of degraded land across Brazil by 2030.
Core to the REVERTE ® program is the promotion of regenerative agriculture practices that improve soil health, increase carbon sequestration and enhance farm productivity. The REVERTE ® program provides farmers with comprehensive support to adopt practices such as crop rotation, cover cropping, and no-till farming while offering agronomic advice, financial support and access to innovative agricultural technologies that make the transition practical and profitable.
Designed in 2019 by Syngenta and The Nature Conservancy (TNC), the program initially focused only on the Cerrado biome - a vast subtropical region the size of France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Norway combined - selected due to the size of the opportunity that the biome presents, with 18 million hectares of degraded areas and important opportunities for the conservation of natural habitats. Since 2021, Itaú BBA bank offers a line of credit for growers who are part of the program and following the socio-environmental criteria.
Building on growing interest from farmers in other regions, Syngenta is assessing opportunities to expand the program and initiated a project in Paraguay earlier this year to help producers in Chaco and the Eastern region adopt regenerative practices.
About Syngenta Group
Syngenta Group is one of the world’s biggest agricultural innovation companies, employing over 56,000 people in more than 90 countries. Syngenta Group is focused on developing technologies and farming practices that empower farmers, so they can make the transformation required to feed the world’s population while preserving our planet. Syngenta Group’s bold scientific discoveries deliver better benefits for farmers and society on a bigger scale than ever before. Guided by its Sustainability Priorities, Syngenta Group supports farmers to grow healthier plants in healthier soil with a higher yield.
Syngenta Group, which is registered in Shanghai, China, and has its management headquarters in Switzerland, draws strength from its four business units: Syngenta Crop Protection, headquartered in Switzerland; Syngenta Seeds, headquartered in the United States; ADAMA ®, headquartered in Israel; and Syngenta Group China.
To find out more about how our innovation is empowering farmers around the world, read our articles on the Stories section of our Syngenta Group website.
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This document may contain forward-looking statements, which can be identified by terminology such as “expect,” “would,” “will,” “potential,” “plans,” “prospects,” “estimated,” “aiming,” “on track” and similar expressions. Such statements may be subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to differ materially from these statements. For Syngenta Group, such risks and uncertainties include risks relating to legal proceedings, regulatory approvals, new product development, increasing competition, customer credit risk, general economic and market conditions, compliance and remediation, intellectual property rights, implementation of organizational changes, impairment of intangible assets, consumer perceptions of genetically modified crops and organisms or crop protection chemicals, climatic variations, fluctuations in exchange rates and/or grain prices, single source supply arrangements, political uncertainty, natural disasters, and breaches of data security or other disruptions of information technology. Syngenta Group assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect actual results, changed assumptions or other factors.
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Syngenta’s REVERTE® program honored as Best-in-Class for transforming agriculture
ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky. (AP) — Vice President JD Vance joined the grieving family of a Kentucky man who was the seventh U.S. service member to die in combat during the Iran war as his remains were brought back to the U.S. Monday evening.
The dignified transfer, a solemn event that honors U.S. service members killed in action, took place at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware for Army Sgt. Benjamin N. Pennington, 26, of Glendale, Kentucky. He died Sunday after being wounded during a March 1 attack on the Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, a Pentagon statement said.
Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth saluted alongside high ranking military officials as the transfer case draped with the American flag was carried from the military aircraft and into an awaiting vehicle.
Mike Bell, retired pastor of Glendale Christian Church, said he’d known Pennington since he was a toddler and got a call from Pennington's father when the soldier was hurt.
“I talked to Tim Saturday morning, and he was doing a little better, and they were talking about maybe moving him to Germany,” Bell said. Tim Pennington called again that evening, Bell said, to ask for prayers as his son's condition was worsening, and then later told him the soldier had succumbed to his injuries.
“He was just a quiet person,” said Bell, noting that Pennington attended the church’s after-school program. “I mean, he never attracted attention because he was just steady doing what he needed to do to do it.”
Pennington was assigned to the 1st Space Battalion, 1st Space Brigade of the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command based at Fort Carson, Colorado.
The unit’s mission focused on “missile warning, GPS, and long-haul satellite communications,” according to their website.
“This just breaks my heart,” Keith Taul, judge-executive of Hardin County, where Pennington was from, said in a statement emailed to The Associated Press. “I have known the family for at least 30 years. I can’t imagine the pain and suffering they are experiencing.”
Glendale is an unincorporated town of about 300 residents south of the Hardin County seat of Elizabethtown.
In a statement posted on social media, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear called Pennington “a hero who sacrificed everything serving our country.”
The other six service members killed since the conflict began on Feb. 28 were Army reservists killed in Kuwait when an Iranian drone struck an operations center at a civilian port.
President Donald Trump on Saturday joined grieving families at Dover Air Force Base at the dignified transfer for those six U.S. soldiers.
The dignified transfer is considered one of the most somber duties of any commander in chief. During his first term, Trump said bearing witness to the transfer was “the toughest thing I have to do” as president.
Pennington graduated in 2017 from Central Hardin High School, where he was enrolled in the automotive technology pathway, district spokesman John Wright told the AP. Former automotive tech instructor Tom Pitt, who taught Pennington in 2017 at Hardin County Early College and Career Center, called him “an American hero.”
“A lot of times as a teacher, you have students who are smart, you have students who are charismatic, who are likable, dare I say, enchanting,” said Pitt, who called Pennington Nate. “Rarely do you have students who are all of those. And Ben Pennington was all of those. He was basically the quintessential all-American.”
Photos on his and family members' Facebook pages show that Pennington achieved the rank of Eagle Scout in August 2017. His Eagle project was the demolition of some old baseball dugouts in Glendale, said Darin Life, former committee chairman for Troop 221.
“If you look up Eagle Scout, his picture’s probably there,” said Life, who knew Pennington throughout his scouting career. “He loved his country. I would have expected nothing less of him than to lose his life protecting his country.”
A month after his Eagle ceremony, Pennington posted a photo of himself taking the oath of enlistment. He entered the service as a unit supply specialist and was assigned to the Space and Missile Command on June 10, 2025, the Army said in a release.
Among his awards and decorations were the Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal, Army Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal and the Army Service Ribbon.
“The U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command is deeply saddened by the loss of Sgt. Pennington,” said Lt. Gen. Sean A. Gainey, USASMDC commanding general. “He gave the ultimate sacrifice for the country he loved.”
Col. Michael F. Dyer, 1st Space Brigade commander, described Pennington as “a dedicated and experienced noncommissioned officer who led with strength, professionalism and sense of duty.”
Pennington will be posthumously promoted to staff sergeant, the Pentagon said.
Associated Press reporters Konstantin Toropin in Washington, Hallie Golden in Seattle and Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee, contributed to this report.
A U.S. Army carry team places the transfer case with the remains of U.S. Army Sgt. Benjamin N. Pennington, 26, of Glendale, Ky., the seventh U.S. service member to die in combat during the Iran war, in the the transfer vehicle during a dignified transfer Monday, March 9, 2026, at Dover Air Force Base, Del. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine and other military leaders pray before a dignified transfer for U.S. Army Sgt. Benjamin N. Pennington, 26, of Glendale, Ky., the seventh U.S. service member to die in combat during the Iran war, Monday, March 9, 2026, at Dover Air Force Base, Del. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, and other military leaders, salute during a dignified transfer for Sgt. Benjamin N. Pennington, 26, of Glendale, Ky., Monday March 9, 2026, at Dover Air Force Base, Del. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth salutes as an U.S. Army carry team moves the transfer case containing the remains of Sgt. Benjamin N. Pennington, 26, of Glendale, Ky., Monday March 9, 2026, at Dover Air Force Base, Del. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
This image provided by the U.S. Army shows U.S. Army Sgt. Benjamin N. Pennington, 26, of Glendale, Ky. (U.S. Amy via AP)
