Food & Nutrition

Supporting our farmers

We believe everyone working within our extended supply chains should earn sufficient income to maintain a decent standard of living. We are committed to ensuring that 100% of rice farmers in our supply chain at risk of poverty are reached by programs designed to enable them to thrive. By the end of 2022, we had reached 84% (more than 4,000) of our farmers.

Enabling smallholders to grow and innovate

Through a partnership with the International Finance Cooperation (IFC), we have supported 21 agricultural cooperatives with 1,250 farmers in Cambodia. The partnership enabled farmers to expand their land and improve efficiency, as well as assisting farmers in cultivating additional varieties of rice which meet market quality and quantity requirements. This approach not only supports farmers, but also empowers them to make informed decisions about the future of their business.

Reversing economic outmigration: reviving rural farming

In our Thai rice supply chain, Mars has funded the Sustainable Agriculture and Rice Initiative (SARI) program since 2018, implemented by the German development organization GIZ. Through this program, 1450 farmers – 70% of whom are women – have been taught sustainable rice production techniques aligned with the Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP) standard. The program emphasizes climate-smart practice and has enabled farmers to increase their yields by nearly 16% and reduce their water usage by 30%. This has led to higher income for the farmers and an opportunity for more investments into their businesses.

Improving rice workers’ conditions, human capital and resilience

With co-funding from the Dutch Fund Against Child Labor (Fonds Bestrijding Kinderarbeid FBK), and in partnership with CARE, the Fazaldad Human Rights Institute and our Pakistan supplier, we are implementing a program to improve the working conditions for female farm workers on rice farms in Pakistan and enhance farmers skills so they can increase their incomes through Village Savings and Loans Association (VSLA) groups. The VSLA model creates self-managed and self-capitalized savings groups that use members’ savings to lend to each other, and offer savings, insurance and credit services in remote rural areas. This program is aiming to increase the financial resilience of up to 20,000 rice farmers.

Tasty Bite Foundation

In India, Tasty Bite continues to donate 2% of profits to its Tasty Bite Foundation to accelerate sustainable and inclusive rural development and empower farmers through infrastructure and tech support.

In 2022, the Tasty Bite Foundation collaborated with the Agricultural Development Trust – Krishi Vigyan Kendra Baramati and the American India Foundation Trust New Delhi, to initiate projects focused on agricultural development and livelihood training in the villages in Maharashtra – close to our Tasty Bite factory in Pune. Though this collaboration, we have been able to implement projects aimed at reducing poverty and enhancing food and nutrition security in rural households by focusing on natural resources management (addressing water scarcity and soil erosion) and crop and livestock interventions.