Better Cotton Country Snapshots

Did you know that Brazil produced the largest volumes of Better Cotton in the 2018-19 cotton season and that India had the greatest number of licensed BCI Farmers? In the following country snapshots, we focus in on each country where Better Cotton is grown and explore the successes, challenges and key changes that occurred in the 2018-19 cotton season.

In Australia, Brazil and multiple African countries, farmers grow cotton in line with robust sustainable cotton standards, which have been benchmarked with the Better Cotton Standard and recognised as equivalent standards. Farmers growing cotton in line with these standards can sell their cotton as Better Cotton. The myBMP standard in Australia is managed by Cotton Australia, the ABR standard in Brazil is managed by Associação Brasileira dos Produtores de Algodão (ABRAPA), and the Cotton Made in Africa (CmiA) Standard and Smallholder Cotton Standard (SCS) implemented across multiple African countries are managed by Aid by Trade Foundation (AbTF).

The CmiA and SCS Standards were implemented in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia in the 2018-19 cotton season. BCI has a contractual agreement with AbTF to share data in a consolidated form, rather than on a country-by-country basis, therefore the CmiA-Standard updates are shared as one snapshot.

In the 2018-19 cotton season, Australia’s 77 licensed BCI Farmers faced a challenging cotton season, as they continued to persevere in the face of a severe multi-year drought. The lack of water availability poses distinct problems to cotton growing in Australia, where crops are primarily irrigated (rather than rainfed). Water is a highly regulated natural resource in the country, with rules to ensure the basic needs of the people and environment are met before any water can be allocated to farmers for irrigation. If water in a river system is scarce, farmers lack water for irrigation. Overall, Better Cotton production fell significantly, more than halving from 231,000 tonnes in the 2017-18 cotton season to 92,000 tonnes in 2018-19, which accounts for approximately 20% of Australia’s total cotton production.

BCI’s valued Strategic Partner, Cotton Australia, remained committed to helping farmers navigate the challenges of water scarcity through its myBMP standard (equivalent to the Better Cotton Standard), which has a core focus on water conservation. In the face of ongoing drought conditions, Australian cotton farmers are leading the way in water use efficiency; producing a bale of irrigated cotton today takes 48%* less water compared to 1992.

Cotton Australia and the Cotton Research and Development Corporation (CRDC) will continue to build on their water-saving efforts, showcasing innovations on farms and continuing to leverage high quality research to shine a light on best practice. Another key focus for Cotton Australia is supporting women in cotton farming. In particular, the organisation is participating in a research project, ‘Understanding and Building Women’s Participation in the Australian Cotton Industry’, together with the CRDC. The project explores the factors and barriers that prevent women from contributing fully in cotton production and the wider cotton industry. Australian Cotton Sustainability Report 2019.

2018-19 Season Figures
Participating Farmers: 77
Licensed BCI Farmers: 77
Volume of Better Cotton Grown (metric tonnes): 92,000
Area under Better Cotton Cultivation (hectares): 55,000

Story from the Field
Learn more about how farmers are tackling drought in Australia.

*Figures collected by Cotton Australia.

Brazil is the world’s largest Better Cotton producing country, with 2,027,000 tonnes of Better Cotton produced in the 2018-19 cotton season, a 34% increase on the previous season. This volume was grown by just 312 BCI Farmers, representing more than 75% of Brazil’s large cotton farms. Throughout the cotton season, our Strategic Partner in Brazil, ABRAPA, continued to help BCI Farmers address growing challenges through the implementation of its ABR Standard (equivalent to the Better Cotton Standard). One particular challenge for cotton farming in Brazil is the persistence of boll weevil pests and the high rates of insecticide used to control them. ABRAPA is supporting farmers to reduce pest pressures by utilising Integrated Pest Management practices and reducing reliance on chemical control methods.

Over the past few years, as the Brazilian government has introduced more stringent labour rights regulations, ABRAPA has modified its own sustainable cotton standard to reflect the legal updates, and supported farmers in taking action to help ensure better protection for workers. Importantly, ABRAPA has also begun researching the water footprint of Brazilian cotton, the majority of which is rainfed, in order to help raise awareness of the high productivity achieved in the country with minimal irrigation. Today, just 8% of the total Brazilian cotton growing area uses irrigation systems. The organisation is also exploring how it might adapt its strategy to support smallholder farmers in the Minas Gerais and Bahia regions.

In the 2018-19 cotton season, ABRAPA improved its data collection, participated in BCI knowledge-sharing activities and developed a revised and improved certification system for ABR-certified cotton, all of which helped to further strengthen our partnership. Our collaboration with ABRAPA remains an important and effective way of expanding BCI’s reach.

2018-19 Season Figures
Participating Farmers: 318
Licensed BCI Farmers: 312
Volume of Better Cotton Grown (metric tonnes): 2,027,000
Area under Better Cotton Cultivation (hectares): 1,121,000

Some 81,043 BCI Farmers in China produced 896,000 tonnes of Better Cotton in the 2018-19 cotton season, making China the third largest Better Cotton producing country worldwide, after Brazil and Pakistan. However, yields decreased slightly year on year, with farmers in some regions facing distinctly challenging growing conditions. BCI Farmers in the Yellow River Delta experienced heavy rains at the beginning of the season, prompting re-sowing, shorter growing times and reduced yields. In Western China, recurring strong winds caused problems for BCI Farmers nurturing fragile seedlings. Some farmers managed to limit the damage by drawing on their BCI training, having selected cotton varieties and mulches that were able to withstand the winds slightly better, and having constructed wind breaks to protect their plants.

BCI's on-the-ground Implementing Partners (IPs) in China continued to explore the use of digital technology to share information with farmers, support training and collect field data more accurately. For example, a number of IPs trialled new training apps and online data collection platforms to reach more farmers.

Among the highlights of the 2018-19 cotton season, one IP representative invented a clean cooking stove, fuelled by cotton stalks left over from the cotton harvest, which was adopted by local authorities and made available to local farming communities. Two IPs integrated the Better Cotton Standard System into regional sustainable cotton guidelines, building momentum on establishing Better Cotton as the ‘norm’ in the region. Meanwhile, another IP delivered educational sessions at six primary schools to raise awareness of important issues such as sexual harassment, sharing its approach and learnings with other BCI programme countries.

In 2020, the BCI Council took the decision to suspend BCI assurance activities in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) of China for the 2020-21 cotton season, recognising that the operating environment prevents credible assurance and licensing from being implemented. You can read more about this on the BCI website.

2018-19 Season Figures
Participating Farmers: 93,378
Licensed BCI Farmers: 81,043
Volume of Better Cotton Grown (metric tonnes): 896,000
Area under Better Cotton Cultivation (hectares): 431,000

Story from the Field
Find out how BCI is helping farmers in China to conserve water and raise yields despite extreme weather.

India has the largest number of farmers participating in the BCI Programme and growing Better Cotton. In India, some 684,274 BCI Farmers produced 652,000 tonnes of Better Cotton in the 2018-19 cotton season, a considerable increase in both farmer numbers and cotton volumes, compared to 2017-18, when 575,725 BCI Farmers produced 572,000 tonnes of Better Cotton. This was achieved despite a drop in productivity due to prolonged dry spells followed by erratic rainfall in Gujarat and a delayed monsoon in Maharashtra. The extended dry period led to severe water scarcity just when the crops needed water for healthy growth. As a result, farmers experienced stunted crop growth, pest infestations (mealy bug, thrips and pink boll worm) and lower than expected yields (454kg compared to 500 kg per hectare in the previous season).

To support more cotton farmers in the 2018-19 cotton season, BCI partnered with six new Implementing Partners (IPs), steadily building their capacity to deliver high quality training and support to cotton farmers aspiring to improve their practices and grow Better Cotton. These new partnerships, together with existing IPs expanding into new states, led to more farmers joining the BCI Programme.

The BCI India Team continued to explore opportunities to improve knowledge among all IPs on key concepts such as biodiversity and water management, working with agronomy experts to provide training on these important topics. The team also shared knowledge and best practices with other BCI countries to promote continuous improvement at a global level.

2018-19 Season Figures
Participating Farmers: 828,820
Licensed BCI Farmers: 684,274
Volume of Better Cotton Grown (metric tonnes): 652,000
Area under Better Cotton Cultivation (hectares): 785,000

Story from the Field
Explore how farmers in India formed their own farmer-owned collective and improved their livelihoods.

In Israel, 58 BCI Farmers produced 9,000 tonnes of Better Cotton in the 2018-19 cotton season. The decline in yield, from 12,000 tonnes in the previous season, and reduction in farmer numbers (from 75 in the 2017-18 season), was largely due to a soil-borne fungus (macrophomina phaseolina) which attacks cotton plant roots and tissue, particularly after extreme heat or drought. The fungus posed a real risk to cotton farmers’ crops, impacting yields and disrupting their way of life.

BCI Farmers in Israel moved quickly to address the challenge, working together to identify fungal outbreaks more quickly and share best practices for preventing them. Our Implementing Partner in Israel, the Israel Cotton Production and Marketing Board (ICB), played a fundamental role in this effort by collecting and analysing data from the field and consulting with other agronomy experts to provide comprehensive, informative advice to farmers. In this way, BCI Farmers were able to take action to limit damage to their crops, while adopting measures to help prevent future outbreaks.

ICB also continued to develop its own cotton standard system – the Israel Cotton Production Standard (ICPS) – while diligently implementing the Better Cotton Principles and Criteria with all BCI Farmers in Israel. BCI and ICB started benchmarking the new ICB system against the Better Cotton Standard in 2019. The process should be successfully completed in 2020, and ICPS will become a benchmarked, BCI-recognised standard system. This will mean farmers licensed to sell cotton under the ICB standard will also be able to sell their cotton as Better Cotton.

2018-19 Season Figures
Participating Farmers: 58
Licensed BCI Farmers: 58
Volume of Better Cotton Grown (metric tonnes): 9,000
Area under Better Cotton Cultivation (hectares): 5,000

Story from the Field
Overcoming a cotton crisis through collaboration and working in harmony with the environment.

Despite the key challenges of soil fertility (which has historically required farmers to use large quantities of fertilisers), water availability and pest attacks, BCI Farmer numbers in Kazakhstan nearly doubled from 169 to 334, year on year. In the 2018-2019 cotton season, BCI Farmers achieved a good yield, producing 2,000 tonnes of Better Cotton, up from 1,000 in the 2017-18 cotton season. As is the case in other countries in Central Asia, farming in Kazakhstan is still predominantly manual, with farming families typically farming small areas of land.

The government in Kazakhstan has encouraged farmers to work in large cooperatives, which are proven to be more efficient. However, as many farmers are used to their traditional practices and are wary of new techniques creating additional input costs, they are hesitant to make this change. Encouraging farmers to see the benefits of sustainable practices for themselves will be vital to encouraging this transition.

To further support the country’s BCI Farmers, BCI’s Implementing Partner in Kazakhstan, Louis Dreyfus Company, is seeking additional funding for farmer capacity building projects. It is also working with research institutes to support farmers and the industry in developing more climate resilient varieties of cotton.

2018-19 Season Figures
Participating Farmers: 335
Licensed BCI Farmers: 334
Volume of Better Cotton Grown (metric tonnes): 2,000
Area under Better Cotton Cultivation (hectares): 3,000

In Madagascar, cotton farmers rely on rainfall to water their crops. However, in the past two decades, temperatures have risen, while rainfall has occurred sporadically and much later in the traditional growing season. Added to this, the Alizé wind blows for twice as long as in previous years, displacing the nutrient-rich topsoil. Climate change also means the area where farmers can sow cotton is dwindling. These challenging conditions, alongside a lack of organisation and support within the country’s cotton sector, are deterring many farmers from growing cotton. While we help farmers who choose to grow cotton to do so in a more sustainable manner, we understand that sometimes the better choice for farmers is to grow another crop.

BCI Farmer numbers dropped considerably from the 2017-18 cotton season (2,193) to the 2018-19 season (663), yet this smaller number of licensed BCI Farmers collectively produced higher yields than in the previous season, growing 700 tonnes of Better Cotton (compared to 500 tonnes). Growing conditions improved slightly in the 2018-19 cotton season, compared to a serious drought in the previous season, enabling the smaller number of BCI Farmers to achieve a better yield overall.

In 2019, BCI and Implementing Partner TianliAgri took steps to raise the profile of cotton in Madagascar and create more market opportunities for BCI Farmers to sell their cotton. The partners are building relationships with the country’s cotton stakeholders and sharing the benefits of becoming BCI Members, sourcing Better Cotton and supporting more sustainable farming practices.

2018-19 Season Figures
Participating Farmers: 663
Licensed BCI Farmers: 663
Volume of Better Cotton Grown (metric tonnes): 700
Area under Better Cotton Cultivation (hectares): 2,000

Story from the Field
On the front line of climate change with BCI Farmers in Madagascar.

Cotton is Mali’s principal crop and second largest export. However, farming can be difficult and BCI Farmers in Mali continue to face distinct climate challenges, with shorter growing seasons, poor soil health, high input costs and unstable cotton prices. Irregular rains often require farmers to re-sow their cotton seeds several times, before the seedlings take hold.

In the face of existing challenging, Better Cotton production in Mali expanded significantly in the 2018-19 cotton season, growing more than ten-fold to 65,000 tonnes, up from 6,000 tonnes in the 2017-18 cotton season. The large increase was due to all 14 of the country’s Producer Units (a grouping of smallholder BCI Farmers) gaining a BCI licence, compared to just one Producer Unit in the previous season. Some 54,326 BCI Farmers became licensed to grow Better Cotton (up from 3,879), as a direct result of improving the way the Producer Units recorded their data and reported their progress against the Better Cotton Principles and Criteria. BCI’s two partners in Mali – APROCA and Compagnie Malienne Pour le Développement du Textile (CMDT) – worked closely with farmers through the season to guide their progress.

A particular focus for farmer training in the 2018-19 season was water stewardship. BCI and its partners delivered guidance to farmers on how to use small quantities of water to sow, without needing to wait for significant rainfall before sowing.

2018-19 Season Figures
Participating Farmers: 54,500
Licensed BCI Farmers: 54,326
Volume of Better Cotton Grown (metric tonnes): 65,000
Area under Better Cotton Cultivation (hectares): 170,000

Story from the Field
Read about one women’s journey to improve the lives of rural women in Mali.

Extreme weather and natural disasters continued to pose challenges for BCI Farmers in Mozambique, with farmers in some regions facing cyclones, intense heat, droughts and flooding in the 2018-19 cotton season. Yields were slightly lower than expected, with 97,936 BCI Farmers – representing 86% of the country’s cotton farmers – producing 10,000 tonnes of Better Cotton. Beyond climate change, poor soil health, low rainfall and biodiversity loss also present challenges to agriculture across the country.

To help build BCI Farmers’ capacity to safeguard water resources, preserve water quality and protect areas of high conservation value, BCI partnered with organisations including Helvetas, the Alliance for Water Stewardship and the High Conservation Value Resource Network to develop and deliver dedicated training to BCI Farmers. During the 2018-19 cotton season, BCI’s Strategic Partner, the government-owned Cotton Institute of Mozambique (IAM), also worked with cotton farmers to help them diversify and grow other cash crops alongside cotton, creating additional sources of income.

As BCI developed its new gender strategy, we commissioned a consultant to explore the issues that mattered most to women cotton farmers and workers in Mozambique, including gaining equal work and decision-making opportunities. Looking ahead, BCI will continue to build on its partnership with the Mozambique government to help enable all cotton farmers in the country to produce their cotton as Better Cotton, including by embedding the Better Cotton Principles and Criteria within national regulations for cotton growing.

2018-19 Season Figures
Participating Farmers: 130,324
Licensed BCI Farmers: 97,936
Volume of Better Cotton Grown (metric tonnes): 10,000
Area under Better Cotton Cultivation (hectares): 94,000

Story from the Field
Changing lives and attitudes in Mozambique: One family's journey to understanding the importance of children's education.

In Pakistan, the majority of cotton is grown in two regions – Punjab and Sindh. BCI Farmers produced 906,000 tonnes of Better Cotton in the 2018-19 cotton season, up from 701,000 tonnes in the previous season, which made Pakistan the second largest producer of Better Cotton, after Brazil. This increase reflected a shift away from sugar to cotton production in anticipation of water-scarce conditions (which cotton can subsist in), with BCI Farmer numbers nearly doubling from 251,292 to 369,264. Growing cotton presented its own challenges, however. BCI Farmers faced pest pressures from white fly and pink bollworm, alongside unpredictable weather patterns, extreme heat and disruption to the seasons, with just a short window to plant their cotton seeds.

Our Implementing Partners in Pakistan helped BCI Farmers to address these challenges by keeping them informed of upcoming weather conditions and taking action to help them better manage their use of pesticides, fertilisers and water. Efforts were also focused on gender equality and women’s empowerment. In particular, BCI’s partner WWF-Pakistan supported a number of women in farming communities to run small tree nurseries on their families’ land, growing indigenous trees and selling them to local farmers, who use them to promote biodiversity on their farms.

High input costs and a low market price for cotton continue to present challenging economic circumstances for Pakistan’s smallholder farmers. Increasingly, BCI’s partners are seeking to help smallholders benefit from more affordable prices for inputs by consolidating farmers into cooperative groups. In doing so, farmers can share inputs, sell cotton collectively, achieve greater bargaining power and adopt new technologies as a group.

2018-19 Season Figures
Participating Farmers: 393,192
Licensed BCI Farmers: 369,264
Volume of Better Cotton Grown (metric tonnes): 906,000
Area under Better Cotton Cultivation (hectares): 1,072,000

Story from the Field
Explore how a female farm worker in Pakistan fulfilled her dream of economic independence.

In South Africa, some 646 BCI Farmers, primarily large and medium-sized farms, produced 18,000 tonnes of Better Cotton in the 2018-19 cotton season. This was an increase on the 11,000 tonnes of Better Cotton grown in the 2017-18 season; however, fewer farmers were licensed (1,163 in 2017-2018). Large farms improved their approach to precision agriculture (using satellite data, remote sensing devices and data gathering technologies) to help optimise the way they manage their farms. However, cotton farming became more challenging for smallholder farmers, who lacked access to necessary government funding and support to grow cotton crops. Building smallholders’ capacity and helping them gain access to vital funding and inputs remains an important priority for BCI in the years ahead.

Cotton farmers in the Northern Cape faced a fifth year of drought. However, since cotton is a hardy crop, they managed to sow and achieve relative success. Our Implementing Partner, Cotton South Africa, supported BCI Farmers in advancing their approach to efficient irrigation and helped them to adopt safer pesticides (derived from natural ingredients). It also mapped BCI Farmers’ fields using satellite technology, overlaying the images with known social and environmental risks to help farmers continuously improve their practices.

To help create a more resilient future for cotton in South Africa and to gain additional funding, Cotton South Africa held an event to raise awareness among brands, government representatives and other cotton stakeholders of the country’s cotton sector activities. This included a focus on the implementation of the Better Cotton Standard System, in order to showcase the value of helping farmers to produce cotton more sustainably. In addition, Cotton South Africa representatives also participated in BCI’s global stakeholder meetings, sharing their knowledge with our global network, while further increasing the visibility of Better Cotton production in South Africa.

2018-19 Season Figures
Participating Farmers: 1,745
Licensed BCI Farmers: 646
Volume of Better Cotton Grown (metric tonnes): 18,000
Area under Better Cotton Cultivation (hectares): 18,000

A key focus in Tajikistan in the 2018-19 cotton season was gender equality and providing training for female cotton farmers, who, despite lacking the opportunity to own their own farms, make up a large proportion of the farming workforce. Water scarcity continued to represent the greatest environmental challenge for Tajikistan’s cotton farmers. Amid increasingly arid and challenging farming conditions, including higher input costs, participating and licensed BCI Farmer numbers fell from 1,261 in the 2017-18 cotton season to 964 in 2018-19. The total volume of Better Cotton produced in the northern Sughd and southern Khatlon regions declined from 18,000 tonnes to 12,000 tonnes. 

While continuing to support participating BCI Farmers and deliver training on more sustainable practices, our Implementing Partner, Cooperative Sarob, is also focusing its efforts on securing funding to strengthen and scale the BCI Programme in Tajikistan. In the 2018-19 cotton season, Sarob helped a number of BCI Farmers to access high quality seeds from Turkey, in order to help boost their yields. Sarob now aims to purchase modern farming machinery so that BCI Farmers can improve their efficiency and yields amid increasingly challenging conditions.

Tajikistan is still relatively unknown in the global cotton market, and Sarob is engaging with other stakeholders to boost demand for the country’s more sustainably grown cotton and further support its cotton farming sector.

2018-19 Season Figures
Participating Farmers: 964
Licensed BCI Farmers: 964
Volume of Better Cotton Grown (metric tonnes): 12,000
Area under Better Cotton Cultivation (hectares): 14,000

Story from the Field
Learn about a day in the life of an agricultural advisor in Tajikistan.

Cotton is an important crop in Turkey, where there is a large domestic textile industry that relies on cotton production. Cotton is mainly grown in the Aegean region, Çukurova and south-eastern Anatolia. In the 2018-19 cotton season, 962 BCI Farmers produced 53,000 tonnes of Better Cotton, up from 41,000 tonnes produced by 791 BCI Farmers in the previous season. This growth was partly due to a new Implementing Partner, WWF-Turkey, joining us in the Aegean region and establishing a new Producer Unit (a grouping of smallholder BCI Farmers). BCI’s Strategic Partner İyi Pamuk Uygulamaları Derneği –IPUD (the Good Cotton Practices Association) also partnered with consultancy Canbel to reach smallholder farmers in the Manisa and İzmir provinces.

BCI Farmers in different regions experienced climatic challenges in the 2018-19 cotton season. Farmers in the west had to re-sow their cotton crops several times in the wake of heavy rains and later experienced a pest epidemic. In the south-eastern region, unexpectedly heavy rainfall in the harvest season led to lower yields and poor fibre quality. In the face of these challenges, our on-the-ground partners helped BCI Farmers adopt more sustainable practices while striving for improved productivity, by delivering trainings on topics such as Integrated Pest Management.

IPUD continued its partnership with the Directorate of Plant Protection Research Institute of Bornova to research biological control methods for early season thrips (cotton pests). The organisation also built on its partnership with the Fair Labor Association, collaborating on a Decent Work pilot project to help strengthen its approach to training cotton farmers on important labour rights issues. Looking ahead, IPUD is building relationships with local and national partners to increase its reach, engaging with ginners to promote the benefits of supporting more sustainable cotton.

2018-19 Season Figures
Participating Farmers: 1,691
Licensed BCI Farmers: 962
Volume of Better Cotton Grown (metric tonnes): 53,000
Area under Better Cotton Cultivation (hectares): 26,000

Story from the Field
Helping BCI Farmers promote decent work in Turkey.

The US cotton belt experienced testing times in the 2018-19 cotton season, with extreme weather damaging crops and diminishing yields. Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi were hit by hurricanes close to harvest time, while the cotton harvest in Texas was affected by the state’s multi-year drought. Despite these challenges, BCI Farmer numbers grew to 639 (across 17 states) in the US, up from 360 in the 2017-18 season. Farmers began recognising increased market demand for more sustainably produced cotton and sought new or additional opportunities to adopt sustainable practices on their farms. This led to an increased volume of Better Cotton production at 309,000 tonnes, compared to 245,000 tonnes in the previous season. Farmers in the states of Oklahoma and Kansas also joined the BCI Programme in the 2018-19 season.

At the BCI 2019 Global Cotton Sustainability Conference, BCI Farmers from across the country promoted the importance of soil health, water conservation and efficient, technology-led solutions to smart irrigation. Looking ahead, BCI continues to identify ways to promote sustainable farming methods, including through a new demonstration plot in Memphis, Tennessee, which highlights the benefits of soil health for growers throughout the Mid-South region of the US.

In addition, BCI is creating digital educational materials, including podcasts and webinars, with innovative growers and cotton and agricultural experts from the University of Arkansas, the National Center for Appropriate Technology, and Agricultural Biodiversity Consulting. The US team has also created a bimonthly newsletter for US growers, promoting innovative practices, training opportunities and further information on the Better Cotton Principles and Criteria.

2018-19 Season Figures
Participating Farmers: 877
Licensed BCI Farmers: 639
Volume of Better Cotton Grown (metric tonnes): 309,000
Area under Better Cotton Cultivation (hectares): 282,000

The Aid by Trade Foundation (AbTF) manages the implementation of the Cotton Made in Africa (CmiA) standard and the Smallholder Cotton Standard (SCS) – both benchmarked with the Better Cotton Standard – across 10 African countries. Cotton grown to these standards can also be sold as Better Cotton. In the 2018-19 cotton season, the standards were implemented in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

Severe droughts in a number of these countries and irregular rainfall patterns disrupted cotton growing in the 2018-19 cotton season, with shorter and later than expected periods of rain affecting healthy plant growth, and heavier rains washing away seeds or damaging crops. In these challenging conditions (and with some countries seeing low prices for cotton), some farmers opted to grow other cash crops such as soybeans or sesame instead.

Overall, 822,371 CmiA benchmarked farmers produced 576,000 tonnes of cotton. These results can largely be attributed to the efforts of AbTF’s partners – CmiA-verified companies – in offering more and improved training on good agricultural practices, as well as developing locally adapted solutions for farmers, such as natural molasses traps to manage cotton pests.

AbTF continued to share knowledge among all partners in the 2018-19 cotton season through regional workshops, including Standard review workshops in Zambia and Côte d’Ivoire, as well as visits to supply chain partners, including spinning mills and textile manufacturing plants. In the final quarter of 2018, AbTF also welcomed a delegation of retailers and brands to Uganda to demonstrate improved supply chain transparency.

2018-19 Season Figures
Participating Farmers: 822,371
Benchmarked CmiA Farmers: 822,371
Volume of benchmarked CmiA Cotton Grown (metric tonnes): 576,000
Area under benchmarked CmiA Cotton Cultivation (hectares): 1,576,000 *

*As BCI and AbTF both run programmes in Mozambique, we have to remove duplicate/overlapping data, so that we do not double count the farmers participating in these projects. This is the why the data BCI reports on CmiA programme countries is lower than the figures reported by AbTF. For reference, AbTF figures for the 2018-19 cotton season are as follows: Participating Farmers: 885,575 / Benchmarked CmiA Farmers: 869,425 / Volume of benchmarked CmiA Cotton Grown (metric tonnes): 581,089 / Area under benchmarked CmiA Cotton Cultivation (hectares): 1,634,908.