Organic Cotton | Production and Benefits of Organic Cotton

An Overview of Organic Cotton

Md. Mehedi Hasan Shibli
Department of Textile Engineering
Northern University Bangladesh
Cell: +88 01717979083 
Email: shibli121@yahoo.com

Organic cotton
Organic cotton is generally understood as cotton and is grown in subtropical countries such as Turkey, China, USA from non genetically modified plants, that is to be grown without the use of any synthetic agricultural chemicals such as fertilizers or pesticides. Its production also promotes and enhances biodiversity and biological cycles.

Organic Cotton

Production of Organic Cotton
Production requirements are specifically the set of changes that must be made to field and farming practices in order for a crop to be considered organic. To begin with, organic fields must go through a cleansing period of three years, without the use of any prohibited substances, before planting the first organic crop. Fields must also be equipped with physical barriers and buzzers in order to prevent contact of organic crops with any chemical substance product of surface runoff from crops nearby. Producers must also strive to promote soil fertility through cultivation practices while maintaining or improving the physical, chemical, and biological condition of the soil and minimizes soil erosion. Organic growers must also implement practices to support biodiversity. Such practices include integrated pest management (IPM), which consists of the manipulation of ecosystems that benefit both the crops and the organisms that live around it. In addition to these practices, producers may only apply crop nutrients and soil amendments included on the National List of synthetic substances allowed in crop production.

Regional
Organic cotton is currently being grown successfully in many countries; the largest producers (as of 2007) are Turkey, India and China.

Organic cotton production in Africa takes place in at least 8 countries. The earliest producer (1990) was the SEKEM organization in Egypt; the farmers involved later convinced the Egyptian government to convert 400,000 hectares of conventional cotton production to integrated methods, achieving a 90% reduction in the use of synthetic pesticides in Egypt and a 30% increase in yields.

With each year more and more companies like Nike, Wal-Mart, and even C&A (a European Fashion distributor) have made the jump from conventional farming of cotton to organic. As of 2011, China, the U.S., India, Pakistan, Brazil, Turkey, Greece, Australia, Syria, Mali, and Egypt are all producing organic cotton. With this rise in demand from 2007 to 2011 more and more countries are making the switch.

Benefits of Organic Cotton
Organic cotton shows great benefits at various levels of the value chain.

Farmers, traders, retailers and consumers all benefit from the economic, social and ecological advantages of organic cotton projects. Click on the buildings to see the benefits for each group:

 

Tweet