Monitoring
Transparency in the supply chain
Olam’s goal is to offer an example of a traceable and transparent supply chain, from field to factory gate. Therefore, a monitoring system has been introduced for all commodities: AtSource is a barrier-free, digital portal connecting customers directly to the source of supply at each stage of the product’s journey – traceability is guaranteed. The website explains: “AtSource provides supply chain traceability, security, data, and farmer reports on the actual impact of Olam’s local sustainability initiatives. It connects customers to the source of their supply, enabling them to have a sustainable end-to-end supply chain. Our offer builds across three tiers with progressively enhanced levels of impact, verification, insight, and information, culminating in transformational change. A digital dashboard provides instant access to rich data, advanced foot-printing, and granular traceability. Highly targeted interventions can then improve economic, social, and environmental factors.”
SECO in Côte d’Ivoire is currently working on the concrete implementation of a local version of this monitoring system, called “Spyder.” All farmers are registered, and information about their families, the place of cultivation, the area under cultivation, as well as farm yields (in kg per hectare) are recorded.
The Spyder program is the future of farming – allowing for a more precise and detailed collection of all kinds of data from farmers and their areas, including the surveying of fields via geo-satellite. The Spyder system will monitor the process – from cotton planting to harvesting – and also take into account the use of fertilizers and pesticides..
This allows for the observation, measurement, and evaluation of yields for farms and regions in a very targeted manner. It can also control precisely in which regions more – or less – fertilization is needed, where too many pesticides have been used, where water quality is impaired, whether water pumps are lacking, where more medical help is needed, how many schools there are, etc. SECO’s next step and vision for the future is: Every village and every cooperative will report by mobile phone the amount of the harvest so that the capacity utilization of pickup trucks and cotton ginning factories can be improved.
