Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 150
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 151
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Organic cotton production declines in India as brands shift to Better Cotton Initiative -Jayashree Bhosale

Organic cotton production declines in India as brands shift to Better Cotton Initiative -Jayashree Bhosale

Share this article Share this article
published Published on Mar 12, 2014   modified Modified on Mar 12, 2014
-The Economic Times


PUNE: India is still the largest producer of organic cotton in the world, accounting for two-third of the global organic cotton production. But, the total organic fibre production of the country has fallen by close to 50% as global brands shift to Better Cotton Initiative (BCI). A marketing-driven green alternative to conventional cotton grown using chemicals, BCI is growing rapidly and getting premium over the conventional cotton.

From 1,95,797 metric tonne, its peak in 2009-10, to 1,03,004 metric tonne in 2011-12, organic cotton saw a fall of about 47%. The advent of better cotton initiative (BCI) and failure of organic cotton to give the expected 10% more price than conventional cotton has led to reduction in the area under organic cotton in India.

India's organic cotton has been export dependent. The international brands have shifted to BCI as it is less expensive than organic and does not have issues like integrity involved in organic.

Gujarat-based Arvind, the textile conglomerate and one of the main players in organic cotton in India, too has shifted its focus to BCI. Arvind started the BCI project in 2010. Today it has 47,000 acre under BCI and 50,000 acre under organic cotton. Ginners get a premium for BCI cotton as compared to organic. Currently, BCI cotton is being sold at 500/candy more than the organic cotton as the demand is high.

High cost of certification is moving brands away from organic variety. Certification has to be done at every step right from growing and ginning to spinning, till the product reaches end user. "The price of organic cotton became too high for the end consumer due to multiple costs of certification," said Mahesh Ramakrishnan, head, agri-business division of Arvind. In case of BCI, only bale-level traceability is important. However, there is no spinning certification required as of today.

The organic certification agencies too have been affected by the fall in organic cotton acreage. "We have started giving discounts to groups of small farmers to increase our business as the organic cotton certification has reduced significantly," said an official of a leading organic certification body.

Standards for organic cotton too are the toughest to follow. BCI in contrast begins with minimum standards related to water conservation, chemical use etc and hence is easier and less expensive to follow for the growers.

Though farmers do not get higher price for BCI cotton, the corporates claim that they end up getting 15% to 25% higher price than the market rate because the fibre crop is procured at the farm gate, which saves on the transportation cost and mundi costs of the farmer.

International brands and retailers are willing to invest in more green cotton because cotton crop cultivation is highly polluting.

According to a report of the Central Institute of Cotton Research, Nagpur, cotton is the second largest polluter in agriculture, accounting for 25% of the pollution from the pesticides used on the crop.

In India, the first five years from 2006-2010 were of rapid growth for organic cotton, after which the decline began. Globally, there has been a fall in global organic cotton production from 2011 onward.

First harvest of BCI cotton took place in 2010-11 in India, Pakistan, Mali and Brazil. The biggest challenge faced by organic cotton growers is to get non-Bt cotton seeds as almost 98% of the cotton area in the country is now under Bt cotton. BCI is neutral to GM technology. It covers environmental, economic and social aspects. The farmer growing BCI cotton has to use micro irrigation to save water, adopt integrated pest management practices.

Hyderabad-based Chetna Organic too has observed a decline in area under organic cotton. "There has been a decline of about 30% due to non-availability of non-GMO seeds and the pricing issues," said Mrunal Lahankar, certification manager at Chetna Organic Agricultural Producer Company.

There are various alternative cotton growing models to the conventional cotton growing in the world including organic, fairtrade, BCI, cleaner cotton etc. Globally, the area under organic cotton started declining from 2001 coupled with increase in area under BCI.

BCI is a not for profit organisation. It has nine implementing partners including WWF, Solidaridad, CottonConnect, Trident, Arvind, AFPRO, ACF and ABRAPA.

The public partners are the Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH), Rabobank Foundation and ICCO.


The Economic Times, 11 March, 2014, http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-03-11/news/48118258_1_cotton-production-ginners-organic-cotton


Related Articles

 

Write Comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

Video Archives

Archives

share on Facebook
Twitter
RSS
Feedback
Read Later

Contact Form

Please enter security code
      Close