Simon Ferrigno
Advisor
Sustainable & Organic Farm Systems

Organic cotton has gone from being a poorly regarded and much-criticized niche to more accepted in the mainstream as worthy of a place. The growth trend looks set to continue but the ongoing impact of the global financial crisis is still posing problems and some larger brands may switch to Better Cotton or other, cheaper, sustainable sources.

Jens Soth
Program Coordinator
Helvetas Organic Cotton Center

Organic cotton might never become the majority, but the conventional technologies will continue to learn from lighthouse projects of organic production and will come much closer to organic production approaches with regard to soil fertility conservation, efficient plant nutrition and thoughtful plant protection.

From a global perspective, what are the primary issues facing current organic production?

Soth: We see that organic cotton projects are well positioned to contribute very positively to the debate about producing more while simultaneously increasing the sustainability production: steep price increases of conventional inputs, especially mineral fertilizers, made a lot of organic calculations much more competitive, while at the same time organic production set the yardstick for good practices of conservation of natural resources like soil and water. That does not mean that there is no room for improvement. Price volatilities also impacted the long-term partnerships that we have developed in our organic cotton projects since 2002. Handling this volatility is thus a very relevant issue in the near-term future.
Ferrigno: Organic cotton, in many ways, faces the same challenges the rest of the cotton sector does: volatile markets, climatic conditions, and competition for land, water and energy. However, organic cotton also faces many challenges internally. For example, organic cotton must affirm its distinct identity against both other standards for sustainable cotton (such as Better Cotton) and sustainable textiles such as recycled polyester (competition against synthetic fibers is another similarity with the rest of cotton). In my opinion, organic cotton needs to stop defining itself as not being “conventional” but instead, as valid in its own right and as part of the cotton family. There has also been a distinct lack of governance in the sector, meaning that not all organic cotton is produced to the same high standard of care for both land and producers (for example, extension services, seed supply, research, finance and services), and some production has been distinctly opportunistic and short term, and thus not beneficial to producers.

What significant changes have occurred in organic cotton over the last few years? What trends do you expect to surface over the next 1-2 years?

Soth: Looking backward, most of the projects (including ours) were overwhelmed with the challenges that come with rapid growth: besides extension systems, certification systems (especially the so-called internal control systems that allow group certification) also had to grow from schemes catering to hundreds of farmers to grow into schemes apt for thousands of farmers. Parallel to that, the markets were playing rollercoaster, and value chain partnerships as well as public attention to sustainability discussions screamed for permanent attention. That prevented taking care of productivity issues. Looking forward, the debate regarding the sustainability of agricultural commodity production will become even more intense and cannot be avoided by any stakeholders in the future.
Ferrigno: In the 11 years I have been working on organic cotton and sustainable cotton, the growth has been tremendous – sometimes too fast, which explains some of the challenges I mentioned on governance and integrity. Organic cotton has gone from being a poorly regarded and much-criticized niche to being much more accepted in the mainstream as worthy of a place. The growth trend looks set to continue but the ongoing impact of the global financial crisis is still posing problems and some larger brands may switch to Better Cotton or other, cheaper, sustainable sources. However, in the United Kingdom, the organic cotton textiles are still showing strong growth in the independent retail sector, so there is a solid base of demand.

It's commonly believed that organic production's biggest flaw is lower yields. Given the growing world population and cotton's competition with food crops for acreage, how does the organic cotton industry address the belief that it just doesn't produce enough fiber to meet those demands?

Soth: In all of our organic cotton projects, we find lead farmers that comfortably outperform their conventional peers even though the productivity potential of organic farming has by far not been tapped. There is much room for further improvement if modern insights into plant nutrition (like mykorrhiza application, timely mineralization of nitrogen supply, intensification of biological activity of soils, green manuring) and biological means of plant protection (rearing of beneficials, bioagents, repellent crops, etc.) could be implemented on a small farmer level. On top of that, the actual varieties are bred for conventional technologies, while breeding for organic would set completely different priorities.
Ferrigno: There are few studies or comparative studies showing how similar farmers in different production systems compare. I would say that while the average yield might be lower, there are different factors to take into account. In Africa, for example, farmers growing organic cotton are often the smallest and most resource-poor farmers, with low access to tools, animal or mechanical traction, credit and good land. They are often farmers who can no longer afford inputs to farm conventionally. Another factor lowering yields relates to the strong growth in organic, as farmers converting to organic do see yield loss in the early years. Organic cotton farmers with five or more years of experience are often much more competitive against others. Finally, organic cotton farmers are producing using crop rotation and other techniques and may produce more food crops, so they should be judged on the whole farm output rather than the one crop.

Can you envision a time or scenario in which the majority of the world's cotton is produced organically? What is the best - but also the most productive - ratio of organic-to-traditional cotton for today's world?

Soth: It will certainly not reach the majority, but the conventional technologies will continue to learn from lighthouse projects of organic production and will come much closer to organic production approaches with regard to soil fertility conservation, efficient plant nutrition and thoughtful plant protection.
Ferrigno: I think this is not possible – unless demand for cotton declines to the point where cotton is produced only in those areas it is naturally adapted too! I certainly think organic cotton could grow much larger than it is today – with investment, research and most importantly, demand. How much can its proportion be against the current level of production is hard to say … 5 percent, maybe 10 percent, would be a good target for now.

Do you have any other thoughts or comments?

Soth: While the share of organic will not increase that quickly, it is quite likely that other organic fibers will enter the textile market rather rapidly: Since sustainability of land use is a big issue, several bast fibers fit well into sustainable crop rotations also in temperate climates. High cotton prices and new processing technologies (enzymatic and enzymatic/ultrasound) have the potential to make bast fibers much more competitive. Until now, the barrier has been the missing investment level necessary to leverage large volumes, but discussions between large scale investors are underway. The combined share of both fiber sectors may be 10 percent to 15 percent of the cotton market within the next five to 10 years.
Ferrigno: Organic cotton is, in one sense, a laboratory in which we can experiment with growing cotton efficiently with little environmental impact, as well as make improvements in the way farmers are organized and supported. In another sense, it allows us to continue maintaining seed purity and research using traditional breeding methods.