The Sourcery

We are thrilled to announce the publication of the first insight report: "Know Your Grower: Early Insights & Learnings from Sourcery's Impact and Assurance Programme in India and Pakistan". This report delves into the initial findings from implementing the Programme and the Sourcery Connect App on the ground, sharing the key learnings of collecting essential grower data, which is mandatory for all growers enrolled in Sourcery's Direct-to-Grower™ Programme. The report also offers a comprehensive look at the systemic challenges of persisting inaccurate farm-level data, and how it can be overcome through incentivised data-sharing and highlights the need for a more collaborative, inclusive, honest and truly sustainable approach to encourage accurate and efficient data collection. Grower Essentials includes collecting a mandatory set of primary grower, household, agronomy and farm-to-processor transactional data. By collecting this essential data, we establish a clear picture of who exactly our growers are, where their farms are located, what their households look like, understand their agro-climatic conditions, their current farming practices and pre-existing economic circumstances & transactions. Because we know that achieving full transparency and traceability requires first knowing who and where the growers and their farms are. This is the most essential aspect of Sourcery's Direct-to-Grower Programme and sets the foundation for more meaningful engagement, verification of existing practices and measurable outcomes when it comes to commercial and environmental performance. This also ensures that the growers who are truly committed to quality and environmental excellence are individually recongnised and rewarded financially for their efforts—ultimately shifting the “impact paradigm” in ‘sustainable’ cotton that is necessary to transform trade for good. Read the full report with the link in the comments below 👇 #knowyourgrower #primarydata #farmersempowerment #supplychaintransparency #traceability #csddd #cotton #cottonfarmer

We are thrilled to announce the Scaling Regenerative Agriculture – Impact and Perspectives from Farms and Supply Chains workshop. regenagri with Regenerative Organic Alliance, The Sourcery and Fashion Makes Change are hosting an insightful event on the future of regenerative agriculture. 📅 29 October ⏰ 3:30 – 5:30pm (Workshop), 6:00 – 7:30pm (Reception) The packed agenda for the day includes: ·      Case studies of farms and supply chains adopting regenerative practices ·      Insights from regenagri and the Regenerative Organic Alliance ·      Financial investment needs for transitioning to regenerative methods ·      Impact data on how regenerative principles are transforming agriculture https://lnkd.in/ec5EeM47 #RegenAg #SustainableAgriculture #RegenerativeFarming

SPEED AND PRICE require opacity and fungibility of fibre and materials in trade—the very opposite of transparency, traceability and individual grower impact! The traditional commodity trade system doesn't recognise and reward transparency and instead undermines trust between commercial actors required for the level of transparency, traceability and verified impact. Why? The traditional commodity trade system relies upon anonymous and localised agricultural commodities trade networks where fibre, product and materials are aggregated and pooled— preventing or greatly reducing any opportunity for transparency, traceability and tracking of materials back to the farm. What is needed instead is sectoral harmonisation, scaled investment in interventions and commercial incentives for growers and supply chain actors. We believe a more collaborative, inclusive, honest and truly transformative approach to trade is needed and possible–which means going Direct-to-Grower™. Want to learn more? Head over to https://lnkd.in/e6MgXaGF #transformingtradeforgood #commoditytrade #cotton #cottontrading

How does our sophisticated digital mapping system in the Sourcery Connect App work? Our system allows for detailed visualisation of individual growers for each of their fields. Using a GPS-enabled smartphone app, Sourcery engagement teams, grower organisations, field teams, growers and verifiers walk the perimeter of each farm (using cadastral boundaries or similar boundaries) to create a digital record of each field's exact location and size. Further, a digital record of engagement is recorded with each grower and grower staff member who owns, occupies, or works the farm, providing additional supporting demographic, agronomy, and trade data along with the polygon data that can be triangulated for enhanced verification. This granular view provides a much clearer picture of participating growers' locations, laying the groundwork for comprehensive fibre traceability back to the originating source at the individual grower, village, district and regional level. Curious to learn more? Reach out to our global team via connect@thesourcery.io #knowyourgrower #polygonmapping #dataequity #supplychaintransparency #traceability

How does our sophisticated digital mapping system in the Sourcery Connect App work? Our system allows for detailed visualisation of individual growers for each of their fields. Using a GPS-enabled smartphone app, Sourcery engagement teams, grower organisations, field teams, growers and verifiers walk the perimeter of each farm (using cadastral boundaries or similar boundaries) to create a digital record of each field's exact location and size. Further, a digital record of engagement is recorded with each grower and grower staff member who owns, occupies, or works the farm, providing additional supporting demographic, agronomy, and trade data along with the polygon data that can be triangulated for enhanced verification. This granular view provides a much clearer picture of participating growers' locations, laying the groundwork for comprehensive fibre traceability back to the originating source at the individual grower, village, district and regional level. Curious to learn more? Reach out to our global team via connect@thesourcery.io #knowyourgrower #polygonmapping #dataequity #supplychaintransparency #traceability

If you want to KNOW YOUR GROWER, you can no longer simply rely on existing data systems based on GPS coordinates! Knowing your grower includes knowing the fields where the fibre and produce were grown, the communities and labour involved in growing the crop and the information on yield, quality, basic agronomic practices and related transactional information as the fibre or produce is harvested and sold to aggregators, first processors (gins) and traders downstream. The implementation of our Impact and Assurance Programme has confirmed the limitation of GPS coordinates commonly used in farm identification in current systems. Inaccurate data in general is a persistent systemic challenge stemming from several factors that exist within a traditional commodity trade system that doesn't recognise and reward transparency and instead undermines trust between commercial actors required for the level of transparency, traceability and verified impact. Also, underlying issues are the lack of sectoral harmonisation, scaled investment in interventions and commercial incentives for growers and supply chain actors. Further, market demand and clear incentives that would compel growers and manufacturers to invest at a scale beyond the status quo of basic certification are lacking, which leaves a lot of questions unanswered given the poor quality of data that exists today. A more precise and reliable alternative is polygon mapping and triangulation of impact data to create a more dynamic view of growers, their farms and their communities. Want to learn more? Read our latest insight report and findings here: https://lnkd.in/dWuFhZe2 #directtogrower #knowyourgrower #supplychaintransparency #traceability #farmermapping #cotton #cottonfarmers

Did you know that women are strongly involved in cotton cultivation across continents? According to Solidaridad Network, women work in the same cotton-related activities such as men and are heavily involved in physically demanding processes such as picking, planting and field management as you can see here. Here, we give insights into what the sowing season looks like and what role women play in a small-holder grower setting. #farmersempowerment #cotton #india #sowingseason

🎥 Join our next Webinar "All Growers, Everywhere: Bringing the sector together to transform trade for good through more meaningful, measurable and equitable impact" on July 16th! Sourcery invites Impact Collaborators and Impact Assessors to participate in the Impact and Assurance Programme on behalf of all growers, everywhere. We're inviting qualified organisations to join Sourcery as Collaboration Partners and develop their own branded Bluechips for the collection of primary farm level and transaction data that recognizes and rewards growers for their commercial and environmental excellence contributions. Selected Impact Collaborators can also request to white label the forthcoming Connect App and would include the organizations own branded digital and database ecosystem. In addition to recognising and rewarding growers, growers organisations and manufacturers through data equity, contributing Impact Collaborators and Impact Assessors can also benefit from royalty-licensed sales of the data sold via the Sourcery Bluechip Exchange data marketplace. Let's transform trade for good! Register here → https://lnkd.in/dxtpiYZd #transformingtradeforgood #knowyourgrower #dataequity #farmersempowerment #supplychaintransparency

💥 That's why we invite all of our Member Partners to become Equity Stock Owners in Sourcery to transform trade for good as a Global Alliance! From now on, all Sourcery Partners, including Grower, Manufacturer, Trade and Brand Partners, can participate in our Partner Stock Option Subscription Programme as members by purchasing stock through their annual membership contributions. With this bold move, we are introducing a unique fundraising model as a supply-chain-owned and for-profit corporation that serves the sector in much the same way as traditional multi-stakeholder initiatives. But it doesn’t have to compete for the same limited philanthropic capital pools or operate under an overly complex governance structure that can impede innovation, speed to market and scale potential. This comes at a time when efforts by many innovative start-ups for next-gen materials, circularity systems, digital identification and traceability technologies with huge market potential have failed to find a clear product-market fit or have struggled to secure adequate financing from traditional venture capitalists whose growth and profitability expectations are not suited for fibre and textiles industry where steady and sustained growth is needed to make meaningful and profitable businesses over time. Curious to learn more? Reach out to us via invest@thesourcery.io #transformingtradeforgood #directtogrower #systemicchange

🎥 Join our next Webinar "All Growers, Everywhere: Bringing the sector together to transform trade for good through more meaningful, measurable and equitable impact" on July 16th! Sourcery invites Impact Collaborators and Impact Assessors to participate in the Impact and Assurance Programme on behalf of all growers, everywhere. We're inviting qualified organisations to join Sourcery as Collaboration Partners and develop their own branded Bluechips for the collection of primary farm level and transaction data that recognizes and rewards growers for their commercial and environmental excellence contributions. Selected Impact Collaborators can also request to white label the forthcoming Connect App and would include the organizations own branded digital and database ecosystem. In addition to recognising and rewarding growers, growers organisations and manufacturers through data equity, contributing Impact Collaborators and Impact Assessors can also benefit from royalty-licensed sales of the data sold via the Sourcery Bluechip Exchange data marketplace. Let's transform trade for good! Register here → https://lnkd.in/dxtpiYZd #transformingtradeforgood #knowyourgrower #dataequity #farmersempowerment #supplychaintransparency