Better Cotton boosted farmer numbers by 79% last year
25/11/2015
Better Cotton is sown and harvested in different annual cycles across the world, making the process of collecting, checking and collating the relevant information from each region time-consuming, and making harvest data for any given year ready for distribution only at the end of the following year.
In the 2014 report, BCI reveals that 1.2 million farmers participated in its programme last year, an increase of 79% compared to 2013. These farmers produced a collective total of 2 million tonnes of Better Cotton lint, up by 118% compared to the previous year. This gave BCI a 7.6% share of overall cotton production throughout the world last year.
Better Cotton was grown in 20 countries worldwide, five more than in 2013. Specific improvements this has brought to the cotton industry in one of these countries, Pakistan, include farmers using 15% less pesticide, 19% less synthetic fertiliser and 18% less water, all this while boosting profitability by 46%.
“We’re extremely proud of everything we achieved in 2014,” BCI said on releasing the report. “We’re making strong progress towards establishing Better Cotton as a more sustainable mainstream commodity.”
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