Mars is starting a program for growers of cocoa.
Mars Inc. has released the broad contours of a plan it claims will assist it in achieving its goal, nearly four years after elevating enhanced cocoa farmer prosperity to the top of the company’s cocoa sustainability strategy.
In order to assist in putting 14,000 smallholder cocoa farms in Indonesia and the Ivory Coast “on a path to a sustainable living income in the next eight years,” the firm announced the commencement of two projects.
The initiatives were created in collaboration with cocoa farmers and use insights that Mars acquired from the Shubh Mint Project, an initiative that effectively increased the earnings of Indian mint cultivators.
Mars stated that it will “create a blueprint of interventions that Mars can scale across the cocoa supply chain” using the information gathered from the new programs in Indonesia and the Ivory Coast. Approximately 5 million farmers worldwide make their living from cocoa.
Despite a plethora of ideas and research on how to enhance the livelihoods of cocoa farmers, Mars stated that truly practical and long-lasting solutions have been difficult to come by.
Barry Parkin, chief sustainability and procurement officer at Mars, stated, “We are aiming to crack the code on a sustainable living income for cocoa farmers to enable them and their families to thrive for generations.” Attempts to enhance farmer livelihoods by band-aid solutions or focusing on a specific problem in isolation won’t bring about the necessary transformation. Farmers might be aware of the improvements that need to be made to their crops and means of subsistence, but they might not have the market support to implement those improvements. We are pledging to assist in removing the roadblocks in their way with this new endeavor, especially the requirement to adapt to climate change and the lack of financial resources.
detailed by Mars as a “think-do” tank established by the firm, the Farmer Income Lab (FIL) examined over 1,500 papers that detailed and assessed typical strategies aimed at boosting farmer income. Only three interventions that could be sustained over time and increased incomes by more than 50% were found in the FIL review.
In order to boost farm resilience and accelerate incomes, Mars said it will use the results in a new “test-and-learn approach that combines best-practice interventions to unlock the entrepreneurship of farmers, diversify income streams, and improve productivity, with the aim of scaling successful measures more widely.”
The company said most cocoa today is grown on small family farms with scant access to electricity, clean water, reliable roads, or quality schools. The negative effects of climate change have compounded challenges farmers face as have market failures, a lack of access to formal financial systems, unsustainable prices and a lack of alternative income sources to serve as a buffer against market volatility.
“These obstacles can leave cocoa farmers in poverty, unable to invest in or grow their businesses due to factors beyond their control,” Mars said. “Despite past industry efforts to improve farmer livelihoods, the unfortunate reality is that smallholder farmer poverty has not been eradicated.”
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In developing its programs, Mars said it will work with numerous organizations, including Fairtrade, the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Institute for Development Impact (I4DI), and ECOOKIM, a Fairtrade Cooperatives Union that Mars has sourced from for several years. The company said it believes its initiative will be “the industry’s most comprehensive effort to date designed to address persistent barriers to cocoa farmers’ ability to achieve a living income.”
The FIL research has guided Mars to ensure programs go “beyond selective, short-term interventions which are not fully effective at achieving sustainable change.” Instead, the company said long-lasting systemic change will be pursued through bundle interventions such as providing access to financial tools, including below-market loans and mobile banking, agroforestry practices to address both climate change mitigation and adaptation, and income diversification measures — to address barriers to achieving a living income.
Mars said it was important to customize approaches to meet farmers’ unique needs rather than imposing a “one-size-fits-all” approach. Other steps to be pursued include strengthening farmer cooperatives and market access and prioritizing “long-term, equitable sourcing to provide financial security.”
The company said the Shubh Mint project will be the source of what Mars hopes will be “key learnings.” Under the project aimed at boosting incomes for mint growers in Uttar Pradesh, India, farmers have seen incomes rise more than 250% while the cost of mint production has fallen by more than 20%, Mars said.
The mint program includes interventions such as training farmers on Good Agricultural Practices; establishing four self-sustaining Farmer Producer Companies; and engaging over 8,000 women through women farmer groups and self-help groups.
With the goal of assisting the larger sector in collaboratively overcoming obstacles, achieving solutions that spur systemic change, and defining a sustainable road toward a living income, Mars hopes to “forge new approaches and share its findings — including what works, and what doesn’t,” according to the corporation.
The “Sustainable in a Generation” plan and its two pillars were announced by Mars four and five years ago, respectively, respectively, before the plans for the projects in Indonesia and the Ivory Coast were revealed. The first pillar, “Responsible Cocoa Today,” sought to guarantee that 100% of the company’s cocoa was traceably and globally supplied responsibly by 2025. The business claimed that as part of the pillar, it will look into programs that deal with child labor, deforestation, and increasing farmer earnings.
Mars stated that it aimed to show that a significant improvement in farmer income and livelihoods would be feasible for the second pillar. The company announced at the time that it will explore strategies including crop and revenue diversification, gender programs, village and savings and loan models, and farm development plans to boost productivity, income, resilience, and overall sustainability.