Dynamic Journey

Cocoa farming is a very intricate process requiring constant expert supervision. Only the perfect combination of modern agricultural methods with the traditional farming approaches will help reach a sustainable and thriving cocoa sector. With this synergy not in place, we witnessed how cocoa farmers either underwent immense loss of crops for unstable climate conditions as well as supreme lack of opportunities in the field. Moreover, many farmers started shifting to other occupations for livelihood as cocoa farming was witnessing a dead end.

Archaic agricultural practices also tend to disrupt the supply chain. There is a lack of high quality cocoa yield in the region due to the absence of latest fertilizers and minerals. This was one of our major concerns as facilities hardly reached the farmers. There was an increasing gap between the world and these hardworking, gentle people succumbing to the lack of modern opportunities. Owing to the absence of fertilizers, the yield also deteriorated in quality, coupled with increasing prices of commodities across the world. All of this combined made it incredibly difficult for our cocoa farmers to weather this storm of uncertainty!

Consequently, the market is also shrinking further leading to the alienation of the farmer from their traditional profession. Working mostly due to lack of choice, the troubles multiplied with middle men also started to operate in the farming arena. That only curtailed the farmers’ collective incomes, but also contributed in diminishing their chances to prosperity. With record poverty levels among cocoa farmers, production went to an all-time low! We could not let this continue while witnessing such a disaster unfolding in front of our eyes. An efficient system of governance and administration was the need of the hour that could sublimate all these problems once and for all!

Today, Mars has linked its incredible vision of the future with the traditional farming methods. With Quadric’s centralized digital platform, all on-field activities by our trainers such as workshops, working on new technology, advanced farming practices are duly kept track of. Training programs for skill development and data on each stage of activity by farmer groups enable the top management at Mars to streamline the processes accordingly. It is due to Quadric’s analyzing capabilities that we have understood how efficient our programs are, and how to best implement the same on-site.

This essential bridging has been made possible by the inexhaustive Quadric Workflow Platform. The application has enabled the long missing connection between Mars and the local farmers situated in the remote corners of Africa involved in cocoa farming. Quadric has brought a strong centralized control over the supply chain due to which the local areas have a steady supply of fertilizers and modern farming equipment today. What’s more, with high-quality comprehensive training sessions on operating this new machinery, maximum utilization of all resources by farmers is also ensured.

With the vast network of farmers in our system, Quadric also helps us map various region-wise associates. We hire local people with intrinsic knowledge about the place to act as agents of Mars in facilitating the selling of crops. Moreover, the Quadric mobile app also collects the relevant information of farmland and determines estimates of production. It is done by these very agents who duly note down the details of every farmer on the Quadric platform. This stringent data analysis allows Mars to directly contact the farmers and bypass the notorious middlemen who deprive the farmers of their entire money. The platform provides all the relevant assistance so that the production chain remains streamlined. Association of Mars buys directly from farmers, region-wise associates - local people made Mars agents, Quadric platform registers the people, with mobile app Mars collects info and determines estimates of production.

Quadric keeps track of all the training programs, workshops, and on-field activities, leading to the most perfect intersection of all kinds of solutions on the table. With this, not only has the yield grown considerably, there is a high sustainable income that farmers have for themselves every month. Today, farmers have developed methods to facilitate year-round cocoa production, thanks to all those sophisticated workshops. Apart from getting in touch with the latest technology in farming practices, they are also becoming independent to start working on their own fields alongside making profits. Finally, due to this burgeoning growth of income, new and young generations are coming back to cocoa farming. And that is a gamechanger!

But our greatest gift here has been for the farmers. They have benefited the most from this tieup. Now, fertilizers are abundantly available near almost every farming location, and every other factor has allowed the maximum utilization of the crop area leading to high profits. But even more than that, all the different warehouse locations of Mars have made it possible for us to connect to every individual farmer and reach the necessary fertilizers to the fields, all in the best efforts to increase yield, income, and prosperity.

Finally, thanks to Quadric Workspace, we don’t miss out on any farmland now. Whenever we find a gap in the deployment of our agents, we quickly find out the areas with an intention to reach out. There are many places where we have deployed agents in recent times, train them to deal with the technicalities, and report back to us with all the updated information on cocoa production. We at Mars are always on track with cocoa production, and we also check that the cocoa products do not arbitrarily exceed budgetary limits in the wholesale market. All this has been possible with the ingenious platform of Quadric.