In an effort to increase transparency in cotton growing, Better Cotton and the Punjab government’s Punjab Urban Land Systems Enhancement (PULSE) project have partnered to validate farm-level data using cutting-edge geospatial technologies. For Pakistani cotton farms, the goal of this partnership is to expedite data collection and lower the expenses related to manual data validation.
PULSE will now expand its capabilities to help Better Cotton’s initiatives. PULSE is well-known for its accomplishments in improving field boundary marking throughout Punjab. The program will assist in ensuring that farms meet the strict requirements of Better Cotton’s Assurance Program, which include sustainability performance and production process improvements, by supplying accurate and verifiable data.
Lack of access to digital technologies makes data collection difficult because the majority of Pakistan’s cotton growers are smallholders with less than two hectares of land. Thanks to the cooperation, it will be simpler for these small farms to prove that they are in compliance with Better Cotton’s Traceable Better Cotton program. This is important because it helps businesses like Gap, Inc., Walmart, Target, and H&M Group track down and reveal the source of their raw materials.
Muhammad Qadeer, Better Cotton’s Field Digitalization Manager, stated that “this partnership will add a new layer of credibility to Better Cotton’s footprint and outreach data.” PULSE will provide Better Cotton Pakistan with technical assistance and training on geospatial data collection in addition to validating seasonal cotton data using satellite and machine learning models.
