Farmers to produce 1 mn ton of better cotton under the BCI project in 2014

The project Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) has managed to reached around 7.5 lakh farmers who will work to produce almost one million tons of Better Cotton with project spending of €9.6 million for 2014.

Better Cotton farmers will use up to 20 percent less water, 67 percent less pesticides, and use more organic fertilizer, to make their crop more profitable.

An investors meeting was conducted by the committee of Better Cotton Fast Track Program (BCFTP), in Delhi, India, where 50 Better Cotton projects were approved across India, Pakistan, China, Mozambique and Mali.

The committee, which also includes Adidas, Levi Strauss, and public funders Rabobank, ICCO, Solidaridad and IDH, jointly approved spending of €9.6 million for 2014, alongside a country investment strategy, and invited brands involved in the fast-track program to collaborate on future studies.

The Better Cotton Fast Track Program (BCFTP) aims to support the Better Cotton Initiative goal to have 5 million Better Cotton farmers producing 8.2 million metric tonnes of Better Cotton by 2020.

The market share of sustainably produced cotton is rapidly growing, accounting for 3.1 percent of global cotton production in 2011-2012, more than doubling compared to 1.3 percent in 2010-2011. In 2012, the BCFT licensed approximately 696,000 metric tonnes of lint.