Posted on 09
July 2009 - Pesticides spraying in cotton
field in Pirawalla, on the Punjab Plains
in Pakistan. The Better Cotton Initiative
aims to reduce this kind of pesticide use.
Camels transport cotton
in Faisalabad, Pakistan. Sustainable cotton,
produced using less water and pesticides
is now expected to reach global markets
next year.
Gland, Switzerland: The first batch of sustainable
cotton – to be produced with a fraction
of the water and pesticide use of traditional
cotton cultivation – is expected to reach
global markets starting next year.
The Better Cotton Initiative
(BCI), a partnership between major corporations
such as Adidas, IKEA, Gap, and H&M,
and NGOs such as WWF, recently created a
new set of criteria to make cotton cultivation
more economically, environmentally, and
socially sustainable.
The Better Cotton System
outlines mechanisms to mitigate the negative
impacts of one of the world’s most water
and chemical crops, which is often grown
in semi-arid and water scarce areas.
Cotton cultivation covers
more than 2.4 percent of global arable land,
involving about 30 million farmers. Cotton
is produced in more than 65 countries worldwide,
mainly in the developing world.
“The Better Cotton Initiative
aims to make global cotton production better
for the people who produce it and better
for the environment it grows in” said Walter
Wagner, WWF Switzerland, newly elected vice-chair
of the BCI.
Pilot projects are slated
to test the BCI system in Pakistan, India,
Africa, and Brazil to provide sustainable
cotton to textile makers and buyers starting
next year. For example, the initiative aims
to reduce water and pesticide use.
Projects underway in
Pakistan and India led by WWF and IKEA have
led to 75 percent reduction in water and
pesticide use, while increase the net revenue
to cotton producers by 70 percent.
A WWF-IKEA project that
began in 2006 in Andhra Pradesh state in
India for more sustainable cotton production
on a small scale with around 40 families.
Today, the project covers 18 villages and
involves around 600 cotton growers. The
cotton growers worked with test areas where
they test co-planting of crops, look at
which pests are active and test biological
pesticides.
“BCI endeavors to initiate
global change in the mass market, with long-term
benefits for the environment, farmers and
other people dependent on cotton for their
livelihood,” according to its website.
