Our Story
Where We Entered
We entered this work through the Guji Zone of Ethiopia, where smallholder farmers practice regenerative agriculture as a way of life rooted in culture and land rather than a passing trend. From the outside, these farms produce high quality crops with deep environmental and cultural value, but from the inside farmers told us a different story, one in which their work disappears the moment it leaves their hands. What initially appeared to be a market access problem gradually revealed itself as a problem of identity.
What We Heard and Observed
Farmers repeatedly told us that once their crops are sold, their identity is erased as coffee and other produce move through paper based supply chains where origin, farming practices, and regenerative effort are lost. Several farmers explained that they cannot prove the quality of their work to buyers, while exporters shared that they often struggle to validate origin claims even when they trust the farmers personally, leading to frequent disputes over quality and pricing in which farmers usually lose. What stood out was not a lack of value but a lack of visibility, and these patterns and lived experiences are documented in detail in our Community Essence Map.
Where the System Breaks
As we mapped the ecosystem, a clear gap emerged between production and consumption, with farmers relying on trust and tradition, buyers depending on documentation and verification, and the supply chain in between operating through paper, memory, and fragmented records. This creates what many described as a data black hole, where at the point of sale the farmer’s identity disappears along with proof of regenerative practices, origin, and care. This gap enables price manipulation, weak bargaining power, and exclusion from premium markets, allowing others to capture value while farmers do the work, and the roles, incentives, and imbalances across this system are explored further in our Stakeholder Map.
Naming the Real Challenge
At first, we framed the challenge as improving traceability, but that framing was incomplete. The deeper issue is that farmers practicing regenerative agriculture cannot carry their identity through the supply chain, and without identity their value cannot be recognized. This is not only an economic issue, as it affects trust, pride, and long term sustainability, since when regenerative work is invisible there is little incentive to continue it. This understanding shaped our problem statement and shifted the focus from tracking goods toward validating people and practices.
How We Changed
This process changed how we think about origin by moving us away from viewing traceability as a compliance requirement and toward understanding it as a form of recognition. Farmers do not only want better prices, but want their work to be seen, respected, and carried forward honestly, while buyers need confidence in claims and farmers need confidence that the system will not erase them again. In this context, technology must not overpower local practices but quietly support them, and our shift in perspective is explored more deeply in our Team Reflection.
The Direction Forward
This work points toward a future where farmers remain visible from field to consumer, where regenerative practices are provable, farmers can access fairer markets, and value flows back to the people who create it. Any future solution must respect local context while meeting global trust requirements, because in agriculture origin is not a label but the story of people, land, and care.