The Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) has partnered with FarmRaise, a US agricultural technology company, to simplify the data entry and reporting that cotton growers across the United States must do to stay in its programme, Global Agriculture reported from Geneva.
BCI-certified growers and their group managers will use FarmRaise's online platform to enter programme data, manage farm information and update their records of farming practices each year. The platform will also show growers which programmes are open to them, market access opportunities, changing requirements and deadlines, gathering in one place information that is now scattered.
The timing is tied to BCI's move to a regenerative standard. Growers certified to produce BCI Cotton must now draw up improvement plans covering at least three of six priority areas: soil health, biodiversity and natural habitats, water, pesticides, fertilisers and livestock. FarmRaise is expected to help document and monitor those practices on US farms.
Ashley Barrington, senior manager of BCI's US programme, said the partnership would let growers spend less time on administration and more on running their farms. Jayce Hafner, chief executive of FarmRaise, said it would give growers a straightforward way to document their practices and show how they contribute to more resilient farming. Todd Straley, chief executive of Quarterway Cotton Growers, said tools of this kind can help producers record improvements without adding to their paperwork.
FarmRaise already serves thousands of growers taking part in national schemes, including programmes of the US Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency, Natural Resources Conservation Service initiatives and other conservation and cost-share programmes, as well as the carbon company Avalo. The deal builds on BCI's recent acquisition of Co, a digital tool meant to help farmers run their operations, simplify data entry and speed up the adoption of regenerative practices.
Photo: Kimberly Vardeman / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Source: Global Agriculture
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