As part of World Cotton Day 2024, a Symposium on "Opportunities & Challenges in Promoting Regenerative Cotton Value Chain in India" was held on October 7, 2024, at Indore, Madhya Pradesh. This session was organised by Solidaridad Asia, Centre for Responsible Business and Alliance of Cotton & Textile Stakeholders on Regenerative Agriculture.
Please find some key takeaways from the day long-proceedings:
💠 Cotton's value as white gold must be spearheaded through collaborative efforts in the cotton value chain.
💠 Data integrity need to be kept in mind to ensure traceability for which there is demand from stakeholders as such as buyers and customers.
💠 There is recognition of the benefit of applying regenerative agricultural practices given threats form climate change as well as decreasing levels of soil organic carbon.
💠 Production of cotton is quantified by volume needs to increase so that farmers can be assured of higher premiums
💠 There is a need to mainstream cotton grown using regenerative agricultural practices.
💠 Capacity building of farmers on regenerative agricultural practices needs to continue to ensure that cotton that is produced meets quality standards.
Further downstream in the supply chain, there is a need to create further awareness among market actors about cotton grown using regenerative agricultural practices.
💠 There is a need for women empowerment in agriculture such a women in leadership positions and visibility for women in agriculture respectively. This extends to cotton value chains.
💠 To help inform the way forward for ACRE, adequate research will be carried out, given the framework of Fair Voice, Fair Credibility and Fair Carbon.
💠 There is a need to work in mission mode to promote cotton that is grown using regenerative agricultural practices, given the complexity and international nature of the cotton supply chain.
We thank all stakeholders for sharing valuable insights to promote regenerative agricultural practices in cotton value chains, as well as the farmers and FPO representatives who engaged actively. It was inspiring to see everyone affirm their commitment to advancing regenerative agriculture at the Symposium.
Shri Shankar Lalwani, Dr.Suresh Motwani, Ranjeeb Sarma, Rijit Sengupta, Balram Rathod, Rameshwar Jha, Devyani Hari, #VKSingh, #VinodBafna, Gangadhar Sriramappa, Arvind Rewal, Pranjal Jyoti Goswami, #B.K.Maheshwari, #GopalKalamkar, #TrilokchandChhawna, #ManojAgarwal,
#NagulalCharel, #DineshGerewal, #FatehSinghCharel
Solidaridad Network, Alliance of Cotton & Textile Stakeholders on Regenerative Agriculture, Centre for Responsible Business, Bajna Women Agro Producers Company Limited, Maral Overseas Ltd., Louis Dreyfus Company, IKEA , Gokaldas Exports Limited, IISS
#WorldCottonDay #regenerativeagriculture #cotton #textiles #supplychain #livelihoods #climatechange