Organic Cotton farming

The best choice with far reaching benefits for people and planet

A prosperous organic cotton sector benefits everyone from farmer to consumer. To realize the sector’s potential, we need to bring about the conditions that will allow the crop that safeguards the environment and enhance farmer livelihoods to flourish.

How organic cotton farming techniques bring positive environmental and social impacts:

1. Organic farming helps to lower greenhouse gas emissions (the emission into the earth’s atmosphere of any of various gases, especially carbon dioxide, that contributethe greenhouse effect). Organic farming enhances long-term ecosystem preservation by promoting healthy soils that store high quantities of carbon.

2. Organic cotton farmers commit to using natural interventions wherever possible, and avoid the use of synthetic chemicals and pesticides (organic pesticides are permitted but are severely restricted and only used as a last resort).

3. Avoiding genetically modified crops encourages hybrid variation in cotton seeds, which helps to preserve and develop locally suited and climate-resilient seed varieties.

4. As organic agricultural practices build organic matter in soils, they have a higher water holding capacity and less water is used overall for organic cotton farming.

5. Organic cotton farming also brings multiple benefits to farmers, especially smallholders who make up the vast percentage of all cotton farmers. Under the right conditions, organic farming offers better livelihoods to farmers through a combination of lower production costs and reduced indebtedness. This is because organic farmers do not rely on the costly chemical inputs that smallholder conventional cotton farmers spend up to 60% of their annual income on. In addition, the premium prices paid for organic products helps farmers to increase their incomes, while the non-use of agro-chemicals contributes to better health.

6. Organic cotton is mostly farmed in rotation with other crops. Organic farmers grow an average of six other food crops alongside organic cotton on their farms, especially in countries like India. This more holistic farming approach brings numerous benefits, such as enhanced food security and safer food crops.

Common Misconception Explained

1. Water use

There a number of reasons why organic cotton farming results in much lower water use. Organic agricultural practices use natural methods to build up organic matter in soils, resulting in up to 30% more water retention as compared to conventional cotton. Organic cotton farming also contributes towards improved water quality because of the avoidance of chemical water pollution.

2. Chemical/fertilizer use

The relationship between organic cotton farming and artificial chemical and pesticide use is often misrepresented. In organic agriculture, artificial chemicals are prohibited and pesticides are severely restricted. Instead, organic agriculture relies on natural methods for disease and pest prevention, such as sustainable crop rotations, using wildlife to control pests and disease, and preserving nutrient-rich soils and resilient crops. For this reason, approximately 2.8 kilograms of hazardous pesticides and 363 kilograms of chemical fertilizers are avoided for each kilogram of organic cotton produced.

3. Energy use

Surprisingly, it has been claimed that links have been found between organic farming and higher greenhouse gas emissions. Rather, organic cotton farming practices go hand-in-hand with much lower emissions than are produced when growing conventional cotton. As organic farming does not rely on fossil fuel-based fertilizers and herbicides, growing organic cotton does not contribute to the significant emissions associated with the production and use of such inputs. In addition, the natural farming methods used in organic agriculture are highly effective at storing humus in soils, a stable form of organic carbon. As a result this is estimated to reduce the global warming potential of organic cotton by up to 46% compared to non-organic cotton.

4. Biotechnology

It has been claimed that applications of biotechnology, such as the use of genetically modified (GM) seeds, has contributed to efficiency gains and thus the overall sustainability benefits of conventional cotton farming.

Organic agriculture avoids the use of GM seeds. Instead, organic cotton farming is committed to maintaining a diverse stock of traditional organic cotton cultivars, including more locally suited and climate resilient seed varieties. As a result, organic cotton growing promotes biodiversity, and is more able to thrive under situations of resource constraints, which adds to the importance of the organic cotton sector in the context of climate change. Organic variety seed can also be used again by farmers whereas GM seeds need to be bought every season.

Lower yield production is one of the main issues which constantly pop up when we talk about Cotton organic farming. Clarity on this issue is important for understanding how far the lower social and environmental costs of organic cotton production are realized in practice.

When it comes to cotton growing, the costs are not always financial. The negative environmental and social externalization of conventionally grown cotton are not included in the final retail price. Supporting organic also means supporting a system that is dedicated to enhancing environmental protection, promoting a long-term and resilient cotton sector, and enhancing farmer livelihoods.