The future of regenerative cotton farming

To drive adoption of regenerative agriculture in the cotton industry, it is crucial that farmer-centric approaches considers farmers' localized environment and resources available

Regenerative sourcing has shown significant promise for the cotton industry; helping to regenerate soils, support ecosystems, and improve farmer livelihoods all whilst increasing yield. With initial pilots showing the potential for transformative impact, how can this approach now be implemented at scale?

To explore this topic, Innovation Forum and CottonConnect convened a closed-door workshop with 16 key voices and stakeholders that attended Innovation Forum’s Sustainable Apparel and Textiles conference in Amsterdam on Tuesday 23rd April 2024.

Using CottonConnect's work with cotton farmers in Gujarat as a case study, we discussed the challenges that remain in the cotton industry and the potential for regenerative agriculture as a solution.

To follow is a summary of the key points discussed.

Discussion summary:

As always, farmer-centric approaches that consider their localized environment and resources available are key to drive adoption.
Farmers are central to driving the transition to regenerative farming. It’s necessary to engage with farmers on the ground to communicate the potential impacts of climate change, the benefits of practice change and the steps they can take towards regenerative approaches.
Soil health management, biodiversity, agroforestry, animal welfare and social fairness are the main pillars of regenerative agriculture that CottonConnect focuses on in India.
‘Impact data’ is key, not only for brands and implementing partners, but to demonstrate to farmers the impact of practice change.
Legislation and institutional changes are required to scale impact. Engaging government actors in dialogues with the cotton sector is key to also ensure more resources can be applied.
Consumer demand has the potential to scale regenerative practices, with greater education on this topic.
It is important to note that CottonConnect’s learnings focuses on work with smallholder farmers, where communication and knowledge sharing takes on a different form in comparison to working with large scale farms, with resources and access to more inputs.

Localized, farmer-centric approaches:
“Give people in rural areas pride, knowledge and see the results become incredibly positive.”

Results-driven change: Engaging with farmers in data collection and analysis is key to ensure that they can understand the insights gained. It’s best to ‘show not tell’ the benefits of regenerative practices and highlight what is in it for them. For example, explaining the potential for reduced pesticide costs is particularly key as younger generations adopt a business approach to farming.
Feedback loops:Feedback mechanisms with farmers, their communities and implementing partners are vital.
Local resources: Understanding the local context can help illuminate the appropriate solutions for that area. For example, CottonConnect farms use waste from neighboring livestock production (buffalo excrement/urine) as a resource for fertilization.
Income resilience: It is important to build income resilience for rural communities in the context of unpredictable weather patterns, CottonConnect is working with this in mind by encouraging intercropping (additional income from intercrops harvested) and selling bio-pesticides within the communities and reskilling farming communities (ex. in driving, sewing and plumbing) for microenterprises and alternative incomes in case farms flood or crops get damaged.
On-farm support: Implementing partners should provide on-farm support to ensure impact. Due to climate change variability, challenges farmers face is different each year; CottonConnect’s team has 80 people on ground in India, and 1,400 people included with partners.

Impact data:

“From the very beginning we engage with the farmers... we collect the data with them, and sit with them to help analysis the data, what insights can be gained, and provide feedback to them.”

Biodiversity and soil health: Collecting data and understanding the parameters for measuring the impact of soil health and biodiversity can be challenging. CottonConnect measures soil health by conducting a soil health test prior to fertilizer use to be able to better compare effects and outcomes. They also measure biodiversity on-ground and look at the farmers’ practice whilst awaiting SBTN guidance.
Consumer-facing communications: Impact statistics are key in brand communications with consumers, or internally about the impacts of regenerative agriculture. As such, this data needs to be recorded on-farm.
Technology as a solution: An overreliance on technology can be a risk. Instead of being viewed as a solution, it should be an enabler for better practices, for data collection and to stimulate innovation. For example, weather technology can play a vital role in getting weather data to farmers within hours as rainfall during harvesting can damage the crop.

The challenge of scale:

“As we speak about scalability, how do we ensure continued sustainability beyond these programs?”

Policy: Legislation and policy have a role to play in scaling regenerative practices for the cotton industry. The industry needs to work together with these relevant stakeholders to ensure that policy is crafted and implemented in a way that helps farmers and is sustainable.
Consumer demand: Consumer purchasing decisions can play a key role in scaling regenerative sourcing. To do so, educating consumers on the context of the cotton industry and regenerative practices as a solution (via communication campaigns) that can drive this change.
Internal stakeholder engagement: Mapping the relevant actors and engaging with diverse stakeholders (beyond sustainability professionals) at the product, design, supply chain, or CEO level is important to drive awareness of regenerative programs and key partnerships.
Continuing sustainable practices on-farm: At the farm level, farmers are incentivized to continue with sustainable practices and interventions beyond pilots and programs when they see the benefit of change (e.g. reduced input costs). This can be done through interventions such as farmer groups and CottonConnect’s ‘train to train’ scheme where women lead in climate education with peers. Culture change in this way is vital to scaling regenerative practices on the ground.

To learn more about CottonConnect's work with cotton farmers in Gujurat you can watch this film, and for more information on CottonConnect click here.

To continue this discussion, Innovation Forum and CottonConnect hosted a free webinar on June 6th at 2-3pm CEST.