Organic cotton is widely used for products like food, sanitary, home and apparels. In apparels, organic cotton is used for innerwear products mainly for infants, toddlers and kidswear category by International brands. These products are not only manufactured using organic cotton, but are processed and packaged using the sustainable and recycled process route certified by International organisations or agencies. Sustainable growth in demand for babies’ products and kidswear using organic cotton and process route is owing to the softness of the material on skin and its non-allergic nature.
Hence, parents today trust using organic cotton over products made from regular cotton and the regular process route. Organic food is more widely used within all kinds of organic products. Any product organic in nature, including organic cotton, is grown using methods and materials that have low impact on the environment. Organic production systems replenish and maintain soil fertility, eliminate the use of toxic and persistent chemical pesticides and fertilisers, and build a biologically diverse agriculture. India is one of the largest countries producing organic cotton. Why organic cotton? Cotton is the most toxic crop in the world. It uses more than 25 per cent of all the insecticides in the world and 12 per cent of all the pesticides. What’s worse, not all of those pesticides stay on cotton fields. It is estimated that only 25 per cent of pesticides sprayed from a crop duster actually hits the crop. The rest drifts for miles and lands on other food crops and residential areas. These pesticides are harmful. Five of the top nine pesticides
used on cotton are classified as cancer causing chemicals (cyanide, dicofol, naled, and propargite). According to a 1997 study by the International Labour Organisation, 14 per cent of all occupational injuries in the agricultural sector and 10 percent of all fatal injuries can be attributed to pesticides. It takes one pound of chemical fertilisers and pesticides to conventionally grow the three pounds of cotton needed to make a T-shirt and a pair of jeans. Organic cotton fabric is softer, hypoallergenic, comfortable, and breathable – qualities that make it popular amongst consumers today. It is for these qualities that organic cotton is widely used in innerwear products for infants, toddlers and kidswear categories.
Organic Cotton Production & Cultivation
Organic cotton production does not simply mean replacing synthetic fertilisers and pesticides with organic ones. Organic cultivation methods are based more on knowledge of agronomic processes than input-based conventional production.
The systemic approach aims to establish a diverse and balanced farming ecosystem, which ideally includes all types of crops and farm activities. Farms need to complete a two-year conversion period to change their production system from conventional to organic. An essential element of organic production is the careful selection of varieties adapted to local conditions in terms of climate, soil and robustness to pests and diseases. Soil fertility management and crop nutrition are based on crop diversification and organic inputs, such as compost, mulch and manures. Pest management measures focus essentially on pest prevention and the stimulation of a balanced agro-ecosystem through crop rotation, mixed cultivation, trap crops, and the use of natural pesticides when pest infestation rises above the economic threshold.
Organic cotton is presently produced in 20 countries in all arable continents. India, Syria, Turkey, China and the US are the largest producers. In India, ‘Vasudha’ is the project name given to the cultivation of organic cotton.
The name ‘Vasudha’ translates to Mother Earth in English. It is a unified approach to scientific sustainable farming, improving the prosperity of the farmers and a determined step towards thanking Mother Earth for everything that she offers us.
The project ‘Vasudha’ is centered around village Karhii, about 80 km from Indore city, including states like Maharashtra, Orissa and Rajasthan. The project is spread in over 1,30,000 acres of farmland with 30,000 farmers involved in it.
In the near future, they have plans to expand it to involve 50,000 farmers and 2,00,000 acres by 2015. In the curriculum of the project, farmers are taught to apply scientific approach using household waste, cattle waste, twigs, herbs, rock phosphate, de-oiled cakes, and biodynamic preparations to convert it to natural organic manure.
