Apparel Online India Magazine June 1st Issue 2018 | Page 17

SUSTAINABLE INITIATIVE
Listening to farmers: An intense session on ‘Building a Resilient Organic Cotton Sector: Improving Farmer Livelihood’ in progress where farmers, activist is and Government representatives debated on the same platform for a common
agenda of giving a better life and livelihood opportunities to the farmers who embark on the organic journ ey
Market linkage for small vendors is almost non-existent, which is a major concern
as most of the organic cotton farmers are smallholder farmers with a lack of a
business case that they can leverage on.
have to find out the ways through
which organic farming becomes
lucrative for the farmer through inter
cropping, through crop rotation,
through proper use of agriculture
land. It is very important that cotton
cultivation becomes important in
these areas,” he averred.
Committing support from the Mandi
Board, Government of MP, Faiz
Ahmed Kidwai, MD of the board
urged the industry to scale up so that
they could offer various marketing
tools for a robust buying and selling
of organic cotton. He also showed
responsiveness in working with the
industry for testing solutions, and
providing various subsidies and
incentives to encourage the farmers,
in case the volumes justified the effort.
Take away from
the event…
It was unanimously agreed upon that
there is big scope in the industry and
by 2020, organic cotton is expected to
be a 20-lakh hectares, business from
the current 7 lakh hectares in terms of
area of farming. However, inadequate
supply of good quality non-GMO seeds
ESSENTIALS
What was very
obvious from the
discussions that
took place was
that the issues
surrounding
visibility
can only be
addressed with
a collaborative
approach. Every
stakeholder has
a role to play and
commitment from
each is important
to achieve the
common goal.
along with complex certification
procedures and lack of traceability
throughout the supply chain are
major issues. Market linkage for small
vendors is almost non-existent, which
is a major concern as most of the
organic cotton farmers are smallholder
farmers with a lack of business case
that they can leverage on.
Impacting the knowledge of
organic farmers in cultivation
of cotton and scaling skills and
capacity of farmers, is a potential
solution to the various issues
surrounding the industry, underlined
Ashis Mondal, Director and
Managing Trustee of Action
for Social Advancement. It was
acknowledged that though the
farmers are entrepreneurial and they
know how to do organic farming, but
there are technological advancements
and skills they need to learn.
Incentives to the farmers during
the conversion period is important,
as converting a conventional land
to organic land takes three to
four years and during that period
whatever is produced has to be
incentivised, otherwise farmers get
demotivated. He further added that
investment on building farmers’
organisation or cooperatives with
organic cotton producers shall leave
a lasting impact in not only ensuring
sustainable sourcing, but will also
establish their organisations firmly
in the supply chain of organic cotton.
It was also stressed by Apoorva
Oza, CEO of the Aga Khan Rural
Support Programme (India) that
providing access to technology, which
could verify organic cotton at the
initial stage, would revolutionise the
industry, similar to what Amul did
for the dairy industry. It was also
pointed out that there is a need for
greater collaboration between the
industry and Government and small
and marginal farmers and their
collectives.”
And last but not the least, it was
acknowledged that greater awareness
for organic cotton and its advantages
over conventional cotton need to be
built for long-term sustainable growth
of the segment. Every participant
at the event, including the farmers
were happy with the findings and
are already looking forward towards
a sustainable and collaborative
game plan.
www.apparelresources.com | JUNE 1-15, 2018 | Apparel Online India
17