Mars
Supporting a Sustainable Future
Helping Smallholder Farmers Prosper
At Mars, we believe everyone working within our extended supply chains should earn a sufficient income to maintain a decent standard of living. This is our goal. Although our relationship with smallholder farmers is rarely direct, we know they are critical for our business. Not only are we focused on helping smallholder farmers prosper today, we’re also working to ensure that the next generation is motivated to stay connected to farming as a profession that allows them to thrive tomorrow.
Why We’re Invested in Increasing Farmer Income
An estimated 200 million smallholder farmers work to feed the world, but far too many of them face poverty. Although we rarely purchase directly from farmers, we recognize that helping lift smallholder farmers out of poverty is both the right thing to do and vital for the long-term sustainability of our supply chains. The current model isn’t working, and it’s time for change.
Our plan is based on investing in activities that have a tangible impact on the ground, beginning with our cocoa, mint(Opens a new window) and rice(Opens a new window) supply chains, where a large number of farmers are estimated to live in poverty.
Maximizing Impact with the Livelihoods Fund for Family Farming
To further our investment in smallholder farmers, we co-founded the Livelihoods Fund for Family Farming, which will invest to develop sustainable agriculture projects aimed at improving incomes, enhancing food security and restoring ecosystems.
Read more in our Income Position Statement(Opens a new window) and Human Rights Policy(Opens a new window).
The Farmer Income Lab
In 2018, we launched the Farmer Income Lab a collaborative “think-do tank” focused on finding practical insights needed to help eradicate smallholder poverty. This Lab is intended to be a catalyst, driving faster and more effective impact at scale within our supply chains, and amplifying our impacts by sharing our insights with others. We’re putting the insights from the Farmer Income Lab into action – we’ve launched two programs that focus on farmer financing, long-term buying relationships, revenue diversification, access to finance and agroforestry efforts to help increase household and crop incomes for 14,000 cocoa farmers across Indonesia and Côte d'Ivoire(Opens a new window). You can find all of the Farmer Income Lab research here.
In 2023, Mars and IDH partnered under the Farmer Income Lab and IDH Living Income Roadmap(Opens a new window) to fast-track the transformation of procurement practices to reach living income ambition.
