Mars Incorporated has announced two farmer-first programs to improve the livelihoods of smallholder cocoa farmers, targeting 14,000 farmers in Côte d’Ivoire and Indonesia. These farmers will be set on an eight-year path toward a sustainable living income.
"Today we are aiming to crack the code on a sustainable living income for cocoa farmers to enable them and their families to thrive for generations," said Barry Parkin, Mars chief sustainability and procurement officer, in a statement. "Efforts to improve farmer livelihoods based on stopgap measures or single issues in isolation will not create the change that is required. Farmers may understand what needs to be done to improve their crops and their livelihoods but might not have the market support to make those changes. In this new effort, we are committing to help remove the obstacles in their path, particularly lack of access to finance and the need to adapt to climate change."
Mars will work alongside Fairtrade, the Unites States Agency for International Development, Institute for Development Impact, and ECOOKIM to address persistent barriers to cocoa farmers.
Côte d’Ivoire will be targeted through project LEAP (Livelihood Ecosystem Advancement Program), which will address past market failures and permanently improve farmer outcomes by establishing the fastest, most efficient route to a living income.
Indonesia will be targeted through project ACTIVE (Advancing Cocoa Agroforestry Towards Income, Value, and Environmental Sustainability), which will focus on climate change mitigation and adaption, while also improving farmer livelihoods.
The project will leverage insights from programs like the Shubh Mint project, which Mars began to improve mint-related incomes for over 20,000 smallholder farmers in Uttar Pradesh, India.
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