27,084plots digitised
26,131farmers impacted
64,301acres digitised

To Ensure Organic Standards Compliance, Traceability till end consumer & Strengthen Farmer Livelihoods.

About OCA

OCA is a multi-stakeholder initiative focused on creating a prosperous organic cotton sector from farmer to consumer. OCA unites a large share of the industry in the organic cotton sector representing brand affiliates like H&M, C&A, Inditex, Eileen Fisher, Kering, Patagonia and Tchibo, amongst others. As an accelerator, OCA promotes best practices and transparency through the supply chain, to enhance the viability of organic cotton now and in the future. OCA’s sourcing pilots focus on improving the business case for organic cotton farmers and the integrity of organic cotton from source to product.

The Challenges

To address the different challenges the organic cotton sector is facing, OCA is working on focussed and innovative solutions, from integrity standards and sector organization to organic cotton plant breeding.

A powerful instrument OCA is harnessing to build a more prosperous organic cotton supply chain is the sourcing practices of OCA brands. At the end of 2016, OCA partner brands committed to piloting direct sourcing models with organic cotton farming programs, with two objectives in mind:

Improve the business case for a farmer to grow organic cotton
Increase the integrity of organic cotton at the start of the supply chain

Here are the major data points that help track the progress on these objectives

Cotton farming economics
Tracking farmer payments especially premiums paid to farmers for following organic practices
Health of the crop to estimate production and reduce losses
GMO tests – to maintain integrity of seed and final produce

The Solution

From OCA’s perspective, data points are a crucial part of proving a business case for the organic cotton sector with a special focus on growers. They need to have visibility on the entire farm operations to understand the challenges and mitigate them through innovative solutions. We started working with OCA in 2017 with 2,000 farmers. They are using our “SmartFarm” product. It helps them in:

Traceability in farmer payments
Seed Testing
Farmers information at a plot level
Percentage of GMO compliance

CropIn has been one of the best partner-client associations I have had in my career. CropIn has added value to all our stakeholders across the board, especially bringing transparency to our business and enhancing engagement with our farmers.