PAGRIC Launches from Stealth Mode to Unveil a Comprehensive Cocoa Search Engine
Bringing a more transparent platform to the agriculture industry, the new search engine features critical predictive analytic tools for real-time access to insights and granular data across the entire cocoa value chain.
GENEVA, Switzerland, Nov. 16, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Moving the cocoa industry to a more digital and transparent path, PAGRIC has launched the Predictive Agriculture (PAGRIC) search engine, a platform storehouse of essential information for stakeholders across the entire cocoa value chain. With over five years in the platform's making, this is a significant step to bringing more efficient operation and decision making processes to the entire Cocoa Value Chain, from the farmers through to the major chocolate manufacturers and beyond. This project will benefit all parties in the chain, including policymakers in the producing countries, the EU, North America and Asia.
"Four years ago, we went to Ghana and found that it was nearly impossible to find raw data on cocoa farms, farmers, and buying companies," said Michael Bernard, President of PAGRIC. "PAGRIC is a place for stakeholders in the cocoa/chocolate value chain to get quick access to rich data about cocoa production and purchasing activity, farmer and farming information, down to a village level. When people can get this information, they'll feel confident to invest in this sector as they are now able to track and monitor activities at a granular scale."
Amassing the datasets is a significant part of a focused effort to develop credible solutions to meager farmer income, measure these solutions' impact, and open doors of sustainable private sector lending to capital-starved farmers. Our first of a series of efforts to address issues severely impacting the lives of the cocoa farmers, their families, and the environment, more will be forthcoming.
"A sustainable cocoa industry will not only heal the environment but also empower generations to come," said Sena Siaw-Boateng, Ghana's Ambassador Plenipotentiary to Belgium and Permanent Representative to The European Union.
By leveraging the existing infrastructure, PAGRIC gathers and delivers national cocoa data sets to help increase the cocoa value chain's productivity. Through easy to use selections, the PAGRIC platform shows cocoa production numbers filtered by region, district, community, society and down to the village level every week. With these features, users can evaluate the cash to cocoa conversion in the field. This evaluation paints a more realistic and practical view of the farmer's financial wellbeing by showing savings and loan data for each farming society.
Through the PAGRIC platform, traders directly access the farmer groups, including their location, the commodity they grow, and the gender ratio. PAGRIC also provides the historical performances of Licensed Buying Companies (LBCs) so that trading companies know who to plan to purchase cocoa beans from reliably. These are all provided in metric tons for all LBCs in Ghana over the last five years.
Additionally, one of the critical aspects of PAGRIC is the Reality on the Ground feature, which highlights key farmer concerns. These concerns range from health care, education to pension matters. Instead of measuring impact and success by how much charity the farmers receive, PAGRIC prioritizes what the community is already doing for itself while identifying human rights and environmental sustainability risks. The Reality on the Farm is invaluable to signaling risks instrumental to any cocoa due diligence program.
With the search engine fully operational, stakeholders across the entire cocoa value chain can now create solutions, measure their efficacy, identify risks, establish purchasing frameworks and unify their efforts across the entire chain. Looking ahead, PAGRIC is bringing farm-level traceability, which helps trace where the farm is located precisely to consumers around the world. Other traceability features include farm acreage, number of laborers, child labor risk, and forest encroachment.
About PAGRIC
Laying the foundation for bringing cocoa productivity and farmers' income levels closer to their potential, Predictive Agriculture (PAGRIC) focuses on gathering national cocoa data sets in a single, easy to use search engine platform.
PAGRIC provides access to cocoa information in one click. For more information, please visit https://www.pagric.com/.
Media Contact
Robert Kabera, Predictive Agriculture (PAGRIC), +1 (937) 867-9451, [email protected]
SOURCE Predictive Agriculture (PAGRIC)
Share this article