Committees & Networks

Members:

Mr. Allan Williams (in the Chair)

Mr. Leon Picon, Turkey

Mr. Jens Soth, EU

Dr. Kater Hake, USA

Dr. Bill Norman, USA

Dr. Bruno Bachelier, CIRAD (By teleconference)

Ms. Elke Hortmeyer, EU

Mr. Damien Sanfilippo, (for Alan McClay) BCI

Mr. Wolfgang Bertenbreiter, GIZ

Ms. Mandy Piepke, German Textiles Partnership

Mr. Lyman Stone, USDA

Mr. Mark Messura, Cotton Incorporated

Mr. Neal Gillen, Representative of the ICAC Secretariat to UNCITRAL

Ms. Katharina Graf, GIZ

Mr. Jerzy Kotuhs, Gdynia Cotton Association

Mr. Kai Hughes, Executive Director

Ms. Yana Pomerants, Executive Assistant

Allan Williams, Chair of the SEEP panel opened the meeting by welcoming the delegates and observers present. The Chair asked all members if they have any comments or edits to the minutes for the meeting in Tashkent. Seeing none, the minutes were approved.

The Chair inquired if there were any proposals for changes or concerns regarding the agenda and seeing none found the agenda approved.

Soil Health (Attachment 1): Dr. Kater Hake gave a brief background about the importance of the soil health and noted that the Tool is designed to help cotton producers to improve their productivity and profitability. The following information was provided on how the Tool would be used:

Dr. Hake presented the following timeline for the implementation of the Tool:

- 03/2018: SEEP committee reviews & improves proposal for Soil Health Tool

- 04/2018: SEEP members identify potential national collaborators

- 05/2018: SEEP Identified National Collaborators contacted by project coordinator (Dr. Bobbie McMichael, retired USDA-ARS Soil Scientist, currently affiliated with Texas Tech University)

- 06/2018: Feedback from SEEP Identified National Collaborators incorporated into proposal

- 07-08/208: Broad outreach for additional National Collaborators

- 09-12/2018: National Collaborators and Dr. McMichael create global dataset

- 01-03/2019: ICAC contracts with software developer to create beta version (Cotton Inc. will fund)

- 04-06/2019: Existing and New Recruited Collaborators contribute and evaluate beta version

- 07-08/2019: ICAC contractor updates software

- 09-10/2019: Collaborators evaluate version 1.0

- 12/2019: Soil Health Tool version 1.1 demonstrated at ICAC 2019 Plenary, SEEP creates plan to maintain Soil Health Tool and publish algorithms, references and early use statistics and examples as a SEEP publication in 20200

- 01/2020 – Collaborators can utilize ICAC Soil Health Tool software to create their own National Soil Health Tools

Dr. Hake noted that identifying soil health experts in different countries is essential as a starting point to develop the Tool. Dr. McMichael would be in charge for creating the global dataset in collaboration with national experts. Dr. McMichael has been working as a consultant for Cotton Incorporated for the past 8 years. Mr. Hake also proposed to use the same model implemented when developing the “Crop Development Tool”, which was on the ICAC website and funded by Cotton Incorporated. It was agreed that the ICAC should look at the state of the art of the electronic information available for cotton production, especially on the soil health issue. The Executive Director of the ICAC, Mr. Kai Hughes, noted that this task could be done by the Head of the Technical Section, Dr. Keshav Kranthi.

The following comments were made for consideration by Dr Hake:

• Mr. Jens Soth enquired about ‘niche’ soils, i.e. soils not normally associated with cotton growing, which would potentially require a significant degree of information regarding

appropriate management practices based on detailed local knowledge; Dr. Norman indicated that the Tool will be a ‘living’ tool that can be expanded as time goes on. To give the widest coverage, the initial focus should be on the most frequently encountered soils, and ‘niche’ soils can be added in time.

• Mr. Soth suggested that the indicators framework could be integrated into the Tool, i.e. the Tool could be used to help collect relevant indicator data, a concept which was endorsed by Dr Norman.

• Ms. Elke Hortmeyer suggested that the private sector actors who work with farmers (e.g. seed companies, ginners with extension agents) could be approached to provide their domain expertise in order to help with diagnosing and developing an appropriate set of recommendations for the app. It was agreed that this would appropriate to do after the initial pilot stage.

• Mr. Bertenbreiter offered to approach his contacts in east Africa and Mr. Soth offered to present a slide on the concept at the upcoming Textile Exchange Round Table.

• Mr. Hughes asked to clarify the logistics of selecting the national collaborator on soil for each country. Dr. Hake replied that he would write a job description to facilitate the process. Dr Hake estimated that the time commitment required from a national coordinator would be about a month.

• Mr. Damien Sanfilippo indicated that BCI would be very interested in supporting the Tool, and especially in filling in any identified gaps (e.g. in identifying an appropriate national coordinator).

• It was agreed that in the initial stages of developing the Tool a small group should be established to ‘pilot’ the concept, rather than trying to cover as many geographies as possible.

• The need to collaborate as broadly as possible was discussed, including the importance of identifying what apps might already exist that provide a similar service to the proposed Tool.

• Mr. Soth highlighted the need to link in FAO via Dr. Mancini.

Testing and implementation of the guidance framework: discussion of the final 'lessons learned’ report (Attachment 3): Mr. Jens Soth apologized for not being able to present an update of the “lesson learned report”. However, he briefly commented on some of the advances made on the report, following the recommendations received in the SEEP meeting in Rome:

• Change of title, introduction and quantitative focus

• Inclusion of an annex with original survey questions

• Inclusion of pilots in West Africa by CIRAD

However, the following activities are still pending:

• Collect and process the information of pilots in West Africa by FAO.

• Include processed information in stocktaking tables and update corresponding report conclusions.

• Collect and integrate detailed comments and amendments to the final report by SEEP members.

To a question from the chair about the timeline for the final report. Mr. Soth replied that the document should be ready by the end of April.

Kai Hughes, Executive Director of the ICAC, explained that the ICAC is undergoing its first major strategic review in over 10 years. The first stage of the strategic review process, which is the information gathering of other International commodity bodies and associations, has been completed. He explained that there were 7 ICBs, 5 Study Groups and 11 inter-governmental sub groups at the FAO.

Mr. Hughes noted that the next stage of the process is to get feedback from stakeholders working in the cotton industry. This information will be collected in two different ways, through a questionnaire and by meetings with delegates and members.

Mr. Hughes informed members that the strategic review process started with the ICAC staff discussion on its own internal vision and mission SWOT analysis. He discussed the SWOT analysis with participants and asked for their feedback and ideas. In the ensuing discussion, SEEP members stated that the panel should be considered a strength of the ICAC. They also agreed that the weaknesses are: the reputation of cotton, engagement with textile sector, and the final statements of the Plenary Meeting. The members of SEEP suggested that the ICAC should promote itself as the consensus body talking to the United Nations. In addition, the members suggested that there should be a structure in place to address disruptive technologies such as robot harvesters. The suggestion was regarding emerging technology and their impact on the job losses and that the ICAC should be always scanning the horizon for emerging trends and technologies.

Mr. Hughes concluded his presentation by asking members of SEEP to review the SWOT analysis and to provide their comments on the items that were not discussed in the meeting. He noted that the final results of the strategy review will be presented at the next Plenary Meeting in Cote d’Ivoire.

The chair commented that BCI and the International Coffee Organization-ICO have received funding from ISEAL for a project to develop cross-commodity relevant indicators that will measure sustainability, and the best way to communicate the information gathered. He noted that on behalf of SEEP he was approached to act as an adviser on this project, with a view to ensuring that the proposed cross commodity indicators are informed by the guidance framework developed by SEEP. The project application was ‘high-level’, and the specific project activities will be developed between now and June; he will provide a draft of the proposed project activities to the members of SEEP once received for review and comment. Mr. Damien Sanfilippo commented that the project also includes the Global Coffee Platform. He said that the scope of the project is much broader as it will include all crops that are covered by the organization. The project is related to BIG DATA and it is a great opportunity to enhance the utility and harmonization of the indicators recommended by the SEEP panel.

The chair noted that ISEAL, as part of approving the funding application, highlighted the high-level cross-sectoral support for the project as being an important component of its success. There is an opportunity for SEEP to better leverage this status to acquire the resources required to implement the guidance framework in a comprehensive and strategic way.

The chair noted that it would be useful to meet again prior to the next Plenary meeting in December in Cote d’Ivoire and will circulate some options for a meeting in Europe based on coordinating with other conferences or meetings; the potential to meet immediately prior to the Plenary meeting, as was done prior to the Plenary meeting in Tashkent, will also be investigated.

The CHAIR thanked delegates and observers for their presence and declared the meeting closed.

The meeting was adjourned at 12:30 p.m.