Cotton Farmers Need Support on Water Scarcity

Global Cotton Industry is at Serious Risk Unless Brands Step up to the Plate and Help Farmers Save Water,According toCottonConnect

As World Water Week kicks off in Stockholm this coming week, the organization warns that more support is needed for cotton farmers as they grapple with the effects of water scarcity. It is calling for the cotton supply chain to help take farmer training to scale to increase yields and reduce the water footprint in cotton-growing regions in the developing world.

Basic interventions such as farmer training and knowledge-sharing on basic agricultural practices have resulted in 30% reductions in water use among smallholder farmer and installing simple technologies, such as drip irrigation systems, have resulted in water savings of up to 60%.

Cotton Connect, the business with a social mission to help retailers and brands create a more sustainable cotton supply chain, has issued a new report which looks at how brands can work with smallholder farmers.

It says that to protect the cotton industry, brands need to get involved in supporting smallholder farmers in the developing world, where over 100 million smallholder farmers are responsible for 90% of the world's cotton production.

It wants brands to collaborate to:

1. Map and ensure greater transparency and closer relationships across the supply chain;

2. Support farmer training programmes for basic interventions to reduce water footprints;

3. Collaborate and help to fund initiatives to help drive cotton supply chain sustainability at scale.

4. CottonConnect has worked with 130,000 cotton farmers and their families in India, Pakistan and China, proving that basic interventions can make a huge difference to the water being used to grow cotton, one of the world's most thirsty crops.

The organisation has collaborated with major brands, including John Lewis, C&A Foundation along with the Better Cotton Initiative, to help improve relationships with farmers on the ground, improve resilience and share best practice in basic agricultural techniques and technologies, in cotton growing regions of the developing world.

The new report invites other brands and retailers to support education and training among smallholder farmers to increase impact and scale. It says that if companies work in collaboration with NGOs, governments and their competitors, they can help to scale-up these proven water conservation methods and drive sustainability improvements across the entire cotton supply chain, which consists of more than 100 million smallholder cotton farmers globally.

As World Water Week kicks off in Stockholm, the water debate is in the spotlight with major global corporates helping to raise the profile of today's most pressing water challenges.

Source: 2DegreesNetwork

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• Agriculture
• Water Management