"Olam’s visions and plans for the next three, four, or even six years include many strategies. My job is to implement all these strategies on site for day-to-day operations. Because that is the basis of our business – services for farms. I have to look at the quantity, quality, and budget of the cotton and minimize the risks. With the Spyder monitoring system – an absolute innovation in cotton cultivation – I can measure data and find out whether something is changing or deteriorating."
“Let’s look at crop competition and the cotton business – that’s also a risk. If I have no control over the input I have sent to the farmer, the whole cultivation plan will fail. For example: Olam gives five packages of fertilizer for the cultivation of corn and cotton. We ask the farmer to use one package for the maize and four packages for the cotton fields. Some farmers use two packages for the maize and three for the cotton. But some farms really only use two packages for the cotton (or less) and the rest for the food crops. Then we have far too little cotton, and that is a risk for my company. My task now is to find solutions, to talk to farmers, to monitor them, and also to support them with my analysis. So I have the responsibility from the field to the top of the company.”