Sourcery today published a report detailing the initial insights and learnings from its Impact and Assurance Programme in India and Pakistan. This is a first-of-its-kind initiative that collects deep and robust primary data on a commercial scale on a grower-by-grower basis, including growers from the Indian states of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan and the Punjab province in Pakistan. The report confirms the importance of more accurate, robust, and equitable data collection in the supply chain to deliver the required level of transparency, traceability and verified impact the sector demands and affirms Sourcery’s unique approach that commercial investment, clear grower incentives, and professional grower engagement and extension services teams are needed to drive lasting impact at scale.
Implementing Sourcery’s Impact and Assurance Programme on the ground starts with Grower Essentials (GS 1-4), a mandatory set of primary data required for all growers enrolled in Sourcery’s Direct-to-Grower™ Programme. Grower Essentials include the collection of primary grower data, household, agronomy and farm-to-processor transactional data that is all third-party verified By collecting this essential data, Sourcery establishes a clear picture of who exactly the growers are, where their farms are located, what their households look like and gain a general understanding of their agro-climatic conditions, current farming practices and pre-existing economic circumstances and available market linkages. Grower Essentials provide context for deeper insights into what future interventions are needed for these growers to improve upon their commercial, social and environmental progress, which is measured by the primary impact data collected each season allowing for real-time progress to be measured over time. This also helps in setting realistic commercial and environmental impact milestones that can translate into direct benefits for growers. This data will be made available to other Direct-to-Grower™ Partners following harvest for the MY 2024/25 season.
The Impact and Assurance Programme and a three-year development period that led to its commercial deployment exposed the limitations of the sector, especially concerning knowing who these growers are and where they are located. It was found that across tens of thousands of grower records found within existing government documentation and private certification schemes showed significant inaccuracy in grower data, namely the GPS or geocodes used to identify growers enrolled in various programs. This data is crucial for extension service teams to deploy training and services, as well as for traders to purchase fibre from growers who claim to be adopting sustainable practices.
In response, the Programme implementation has affirmed that utilising Polygon mapping within Sourcery’s robust digital farm mapping system offers a more precise and dependable approach to providing accurate farm data –a valuable asset the sector currently lacks and desperately needs to ensure transparency, traceability and verified impact on the farms and in the value chains where cotton is traded. The learnings also suggest that direct benefits must be clear and tangible for growers to be motivated to generate data in the first place. Therefore, initial investment and training are necessary to properly engage, train and communicate the benefits to growers, field teams, aggregators and gins for accurate and digital mapping, which is much simpler and easier to scale with Sourcery’s forthcoming Connect App. The scaling of the Impact and Assurance Programme will bring the required investment in extension service teams, capacity building, and improved infrastructure to ensure ground teams are well-equipped to support farmers at scale and collect accurate data while also ensuring growers adopting and using the Connect App will be recongnised and rewarded for their efforts.
“We can’t measure what we can’t see. By moving beyond inaccurate GPS data and using digital polygon mapping, we can ensure greater visibility. But it’s not just about technology – it’s about building trust. We’re committed to creating a system that works for everyone.”, says Ruchita Chhabra, Grower Engagement Director of Sourcery. “These first learnings are a steppingstone – we’re training extension service teams now, but the goal is to empower growers to share data independently in the future. We want to incentivize data sharing that directly benefits growers and manufacturers–particularly in terms of financial benefits. By working together, we can create a future where accurate data empowers everyone in the cotton supply chain.”
As the implementation of the Impact and Assurance Programme continues for Sourcery’s Direct-to-Grower™ Partners, Sourcery is inviting all growers and grower organisations across India, Pakistan and around the world to “know your grower”, offering a free assessment of existing farm data and access to the Sourcery Connect App free of charge for a limited time to ensure all growers, everywhere, can be connected and be recognised, rewarded for their commercial and environmental contributions to the agriculture and textile industries. The native Sourcery Connect App will come to market this Fall and will further inform the Programme and adoption by growers on the ground.
Key learnings:
- Beyond GPS: While GPS coordinates are commonly used for farm identification, early learning from the program revealed their limitations in accuracy. A more precise and reliable alternative is polygon mapping, which traces cadastral boundaries using a smartphone app and uses additional digital identification information through multiple interactions and data triangulation to create a more dynamic view of growers, farm farms and their communities.
- Incentive-Driven Data Sharing: The early programme learnings revealed that farmers are more likely to share data when they see a direct financial benefit. They have often felt that they have given their data for free in the past, only to receive unfulfilled promises of access to business linkages, agricultural inputs, equipment, larger margins or other benefits—few of which translate into a clear business case for most growers to adopt and continue improving their commercial and environmental progress.
- Investment in Grower Engagement: Effective grower engagement requires investment in professional extension services teams, including larger teams, to cover more farmers, focus more on individual grower and community capacity building, agronomic support, and providing improved infrastructure such as agronomic and community centres, etc. This ensures ground teams are well-equipped to support growers at scale, collect accurate data, and link the data with market buyers who ultimately pay for the right to use the data under license.
- Adapting to Ground Realities: To address grassroots challenges like limited smartphone usage and network availability at the village level, data collection methods must be tailored to growers’ way of working, and crop cycle and are sensitive to capabilities to ensure that data collection is not a burden, but rather an opportunity to make more revenue, provide critical insights and feedback to improve their crop and grow their businesses.
- Transparency and Inclusion: The early learning of the Programme has highlighted the importance of transparency and inclusion, fostering trust with growers, aggregators, verifiers, processors, and merchants by encouraging collaboration and more accurate data sharing that benefits everyone from grower to retailer. This commitment to transparency and inclusion builds trust and leads to more robust and accurate data where data becomes an asset alongside the crop itself.
Read the whole report here
