Farmers who supply the makers of Guinness with barley are being encouraged to use more sustainable production methods under a new scheme being piloted in Ireland.
Forty farmers are already signed up to Diageo's Regenerative Agriculture Pilot scheme.
It aims to reduce the carbon impact of barley production while improving soils and water and reducing the use of artificial fertilisers.
One of the current barley suppliers is the Furlong family from Enniscorthy, Co Wexford.
They adopted regenerative farming methods over recent years, such as minimum tillage - where only the top few centimetres of soil are tilled - and the use of "cover crops" between barley crops.
"Once we harvest the barley and clear the straw, we till the ground lightly and sow the cover crop while we're doing," Walter Furlong said.
"We let that grow throughout the winter and the benefits are the cover crop holds onto nutrients in the ground such as nitrogen and phosphorous and potassium. It will also effectively till the ground," he added.
When planting time comes round again, the cover crop is tilled back into the ground with all the nutrients in the plant bodies.
Mr Furlong said his family will now work with farmers in the Diageo pilot project to demonstrate the approach which he says has resulted in better yields.
"We've seen our yields have increased, especially on spring barley, and in years of drought or bad crop conditions ... our yields are consistent due to high organic matter."
Diageo's John Kennedy said the pilot is the first for the company and the learnings will be used in countries around the world where Diageo has operations and works with thousands of farmers.
He said they want to manage land use in better tune with nature as part of their own approach to sustainability.
"We set out our 10-year action goals to 2030 to get to net zero emissions in our direct operations and a 50% reduction in all of our supply chain. Agriculture is the most important part of our supply chain and that's the place to put our focus now," Mr Kennedy added.
He also said that Diageo will make sure no farmers are out of pocket as they experiment with these new techniques during the three-year pilot scheme.
