Farm-Level Insights on Organic Cotton Systems

Feild-based research | 2025

This project involved field-based research conducted in collaboration with Able Ecosystems, a startup working with brands to design incentive-aligned approaches that improve farm-level data participation and decision-making within complex fashion supply chains.

The work combined secondary research on cotton sustainability and traceability frameworks with primary interviews with organic cotton farmers in Maharashtra, India. The focus was on understanding why data collection and sustainability initiatives often fail to deliver equitable outcomes at the farm level.

The research surfaced that gaps in farm-level data are less a technical challenge and more a question of incentives, trust, and risk allocation. Data flows within cotton supply chains are typically one-directional, offering limited value back to farmers. This dynamic contributes to data fatigue, low participation, and reluctance to engage—particularly when economic risk sits disproportionately with producers.

The work reinforced the importance of reciprocal data systems, incentive-aligned engagement, and sustainability strategies grounded in lived, farm-level realities rather than extractive data collection models.