PepsiCo, the $60bn - a - year source company of Walkers crisps, Quaker Oats, and Tropicana fruit juices, is Britain ' s biggest crisp maker, buying more than 350, 000 tonnes of potatoes a year.
The sort says it will now supplant the three varieties of potato it grows in Britain with types that need less water in production and which store better.
The 350 farms which cultivate the matter ' s potatoes will also handle to low - carbon fertilisers and use more precise irrigation. Instead of applying about 10 tonnes of water in the field, to grow one tonne of potatoes in dry areas, after 2015 the farms will use about five tonnes.
" These are ambitious but achievable targets, " said David Wilkinson, PepsiCo ' s agriculture director for Europe, " Britain is a testbed. If it goes well we will be able to use these methods worldwide. "
Pepsi and Coke, which sell their products in almost every country in the world and are two of the best known global brands, have long fought each other over taste, price, sugar content and market distribution. Each has been criticised by communities, courts, and developing countries, for depleting water supplies in drought - prone areas and for allegedly poisoning water with pesticides. A massive movement has now emerged in India to hold multinational companies accountable for their water use. The state of Kerala in India banned the sale and production of Coke, Pepsi, Sprite, Fanta, and other soft drinks made by the firms ' local subsidiaries.
The Indian environmental activist Vandana Shiva has calculated that it takes nine litres of clean water to manufacture a litre of Coke, though Coca - Cola says the correct figure is 3. 12 litres on average.
Research has shown both companies that most of the water they consume is used for growing ingredients rather than in the manufacturing process itself.
" The food industry is starting to recognise that a large part of its focus must be on the agricultural supply chain. PepsiCo has taken a leadership role in recognising that it is, at its heart, an agricultural business. The focus of the business on improving its key environmental impacts is most welcome, " said Richard Perkins, commodities adviser at WWF.
