WASHINGTON, July 7, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Smallholder coffee
and cocoa farmers and their cooperatives in Honduras are harnessing the power of
technology to access new markets and make better business decisions
through IBM Food Trust and IBM Watson Decision Platform for
Agriculture, working with Heifer International and IBM (NYSE:
IBM).
Small-scale coffee farmers operate at an average of 46–59%
loss, with farmers earning less than 1% of the sale of a
cup of coffee at a coffee shop. Providing transparency along the
supply chain through Food Trust, built on IBM Blockchain
technology, will help give coffee buyers who purchase from the
COPRANIL cooperative in Honduras
and Chocolate Halba, which buys cocoa from farmers in Heifer
Honduras' Chocolate4All project, a better understanding of their
product supply chains, and enable farmers to secure higher
prices.
Food Trust helps enable farmers and buyers trace coffee and
cocoa beans from the farm to the point of sale, improving
transparency along the supply chain and increasing market access.
It is currently being used by coffee farmers in the COPRANIL
cooperative and cocoa farmers that are part of Chocolate4All. The
blockchain technology also provides a record of provenance for
smallholder farms, providing farmers with a competitive advantage
in the marketplace.
Heifer International and IBM, together with CATIE, an
international organization focused on sustainable and inclusive
human well-being in Latin America,
are also working with farmers to deploy the Watson Decision
Platform for Agriculture. The system combines predictive AI
technology with geospatial, weather, environmental and IoT field
data in a comprehensive dashboard tailored to a farmer's land. It
delivers weather alerts and other information, such as optimal
planting patterns and expected yields linked to market pricing.
These insights can help farmers and agribusinesses make more
informed decisions for improving crop yield and value, as well as
food safety and sustainability. The technology is expected to play
an important role in increasing the incomes of coffee and cocoa
farmers.
"For 18 months, we've worked alongside farmers to identify the
best ways to improve production processes, digitize the value
chain, and ultimately open market access to smallholder farmers so
they can secure premium prices," said Jesús Pizarro, Vice President
of Financial Innovation at Heifer International. "As one of the
first cooperatives in the world to deploy the system, COPRANIL is
leading the way, equipping its farmers with the tools and
technology they need to build and sustain profitable farm
businesses."
Last year, the COPRANIL cooperative produced approximately 1.6
million pounds of coffee beans. Improving quality and traceability
can help farmers receive a fair price for their high-quality beans
and improve the economic sustainability of coffee farming
communities.
"When the people drinking our coffee know where it comes from,
the farmers in our cooperative benefit," said Jorge Lopez, Vice President of coffee-producers
cooperative COPRANIL. "Food Trust can help our network of farmers
command a better premium for their beans, and potentially improve
their livelihoods."
Food Trust will also help coffee and cocoa farmers and
processors verify certifications, improve treatment processes, and
assist producers with growing high-quality beans.
"Our work with Heifer International and COPRANIL is an important
test of how AI and blockchain technology can advance social good
and support sustainability by helping even small-scale producers,"
said Kareem Yusuf, Ph.D., IBM
General Manager AI Applications and
Blockchain. "With predictive AI working to help increase crop
yield, and blockchain establishing a record of provenance and proof
of quality, these farmers are empowered with new data and insights
so they can command more at market."
To trace the beans, users along the supply chain are given
permissioned access to upload data onto the Food Trust platform and
use it to access documentation, helping ensure an ethical and more
equitable supply chain. The process begins with Heifer
International uploading information about nurse plants shipped to
farmers. After harvest, farmers then tag and ship their beans to
the COPRANIL processers. At COPRANIL, additional data is uploaded
to the blockchain about the beans, including whether and how the
beans are cleaned, dried, and roasted, and if they meet thresholds
for Fair Trade, organic, or other designations. All this
information is then shared with corporate buyers, who can also
access data about the beans to understand their price.
The cooperative and its stakeholders plan to extend their
activities and eventually use Food Trust to track commercial
documents used by traders and exporters, including bills of lading,
invoices, purchase orders, sale orders and certifications, which
can improve farm productivity by reducing paperwork and speeding up
transactions.
Food Trust will also trace cocoa beans in pulp, prior to
fermentation, through to the sale of the dried beans in large
volumes to Chocolate Halba. Food Trust will replace the
traceability files that currently have to be kept in Excel
spreadsheets – a requirement from the company when purchasing 'A'
quality cocoa. With the use of Food Trust, farmers will be able to
register the traceability of all cocoa, ensuring that all producers
are integrated into the market, increasing their visibility to
large buyers of cocoa worldwide.
"Both Food Trust and Watson Decision for Agriculture
technologies are helping our field teams better advise farmers on
which cocoa tree varieties are ideal for their soil quality and on
the benefits of fermenting and drying beans instead of selling them
in pulp form or washed, which is how cocoa beans are traditionally
sold," said Pizarro. "With access to this information, farmers are
able to make more informed business decisions."
Heifer International and CATIE recently hosted a workshop with
experts from IBM and the cocoa industry to explore combining
macro-climate data and knowledge on cocoa physiology to develop
predictive models. The experts aim to use Watson's artificial
intelligence and machine learning capabilities to provide
smallholder cocoa farmers with access to data that will help
predict cocoa yield and growth.
As part of a long history of harnessing technology to advance
rural development, Heifer International is also participating in
the 2021 Call for Code Global Challenge to tackle climate
change.
About Heifer International
For 76 years, Heifer
International has worked with more than 36 million people around
the world to end hunger and poverty in a sustainable way. Working
with rural communities in 21 countries in Africa, Asia,
and the Americas, including the United
States, Heifer International supports farmers and local food
producers to strengthen local economies and build secure
livelihoods that provide a living income. For information, visit
https://www.heifer.org.
About IBM
For more information, please
visit IBM.com/food.
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SOURCE Heifer International