AI-Powered Odoo ERP: Transforming Tobacco Contract Farming

Project Overview

Contract farming bridges the gap between farmers and buyers through pre-agreed contracts. For farmers, it answers the question of where to sell and at what price, while buyers gain consistent supply, quality, and traceability. 

Under these agreements, farmers commit to produce specific crops or livestock, and buyers commit to purchase them at agreed standards, timelines, and prices. Inputs like seeds, fertilizers, and training are often provided by buyers. 

This model is widely used in crops like tobacco, cotton, sugarcane, as well as poultry, dairy, fruits, and vegetables. Governments in countries such as India, Kenya, Zambia, and Vietnam support contract farming to modernize agriculture and secure farmer incomes.

Solution Implemented

Bale Ticket Management

• Designed a custom Bale Ticket module with unique sequences for effective tracking of farmer deliveries.
• Each bale is assigned a barcode-enabled ticket containing detailed crop and farmer information.

Sales Floor Ticket Automation

• When scanning a Bale Ticket, the system automatically retrieves all relevant information.
• A Sales Floor Ticket is generated with tobacco grades clearly printed, ensuring transparent classification.

Purchase Flow Integration

• Upon scanning the Sales Floor Ticket, products are instantly created and added to the purchase order line.
• This streamlined the entire farmer-to-purchase cycle, reducing manual data entry and errors.

Comprehensive Reporting Suite

• Delivered customized operational & financial reports for farmer settlements, inventory tracking, manufacturing efficiency, and HR compliance.
• Enabled management to access real-time insights and make informed decisions.

To address the client’s operational and compliance challenges, we deployed a fully customized Odoo ERP tailored to the tobacco manufacturing and contract farming model of Park Industries Limited.

Unique Lot Numbering System

• Implemented an automated lot number generation process to enable precise stock tracking across warehouses and manufacturing stages.
• Ensured full traceability from farmer delivery to finished goods.

Manufacturing with Returns

• Fully integrated the multi-stage tobacco manufacturing workflow into Odoo.
• Introduced product returns by percentage, capturing by-products, wastage, and yield accurately.

Custom Payroll for Zambia

• Developed a Zambia-specific payroll system within Odoo.
• Configured salary rules, deductions, and contributions compliant with local regulations.

Regulatory & HRMS Reports

• Built multiple custom HRMS reports to streamline compliance and employee management.
• Key statutory reports include:
NAPSA (social security) NHIMA (health insurance) PAYE and other Zambia-specific contributions.

Technologies We Leveraged

• ERP: Odoo
• Backend: Python
• Framework: Owl JS, JSON RPC
• Database: PostgreSQL
• DevOps & Deployment: Docker + CI/CD pipeline

Benefits

Accurate, Error-Free Data Capture

Manual entry often caused delays and mistakes. By introducing barcode scanning, bale and ticket data flow seamlessly into the system, saving time and ensuring accuracy.

Real-Time Insights for Decision Making

Earlier, management relied on outdated data to make decisions. With custom dashboards and reports, they now have real-time visibility across finance, HR, inventory, and manufacturing.

End-to-End Stock Traceability

 Tracking grades and stock movement was difficult before. With unique lot numbers, every bale and finished product is traceable across warehouses and manufacturing stages.

Compliance-Ready Payroll

Payroll processing was prone to errors under manual methods. The custom Zambian payroll module ensures correct deductions (NAPSA, NHIMA, PAYE) and fully compliant employee settlements.

Automated HR & Statutory Reporting

Preparing compliance reports like NAPSA or NHIMA used to take hours or days. Now, these reports are generated instantly and error-free within Odoo.

Scalability for Future Growth

As the business expanded, manual processes became a bottleneck. With a single integrated ERP, Park Industries can scale operations without adding complexity.

Farmer Transactions Made Transparent

 Previously, farmer deliveries and settlements were scattered across ledgers and spreadsheets, leading to disputes. Now, with the automated Bale → Sales Floor → Purchase flow, every step is digitized and transparent.

Streamlined Manufacturing Control

 Managing multiple production stages and returns was complex on paper. The new integrated manufacturing workflow captures yields, by-products, and wastage automatically, improving efficiency and cost accuracy.