C&A Foundation has collaborated with the Brazilian NGO ESPLAR and World-Transforming Technologies (WTT) to launch a programme “Meaningful Innovation for Family Farming - Sustainable Cotton Challenge” to support simple innovations that can help smallholder organic cotton farmers to increase their overall productivity and living standards.
Brazil is the world’ fifth largest producer of cotton. While smallholder farmers drive the production of organic cotton, it remains less than 1 per cent of total cotton production.C&A Foundation has collaborated with the Brazilian NGO ESPLAR and World-Transforming Technologies (WTT) to launch a programme “Meaningful Innovation for Family Farming - Sustainable Cotton Challenge” to support simple innovations that can help smallholder organic cotton farmers to increase their overall productivity and living standards.#
“We support initiatives that help smallholder organic farmers gain scale and productivity, so they can increase their income, while working to transform the fashion industry into a force for good,” C&A Foundation said.
Eight winning proposals were chosen from more than 40 applications. They were selected by a panel of 22 judges, made up of specialists from research companies, international organisations, NGOs and government agencies. The entrepreneur Gilberto Barros had four of his proposals selected. Together the initiatives will receive €100,000 from the programme.
The eight initiatives chosen to help accelerate organic cotton for smallholder farmers in Brazil include Motorized Harvesters by Joélcio Carvalho. The simple innovation is backpack equipped with a suction tube for harvesting cotton. This method makes cotton harvesting twice as fast for smallholder farmers, improving their efficiency.
Another initiative is Simplifying Renewable Energy by Flávio Luna. This project enables farmers to produce oil and other by products from corn and sesame on their own property. Farmers receive training workshops, as well as advice on how to generate their own renewable energy to produce oil and other by products. As corn and sesame are usually grown together with cotton, this generates extra income for farmers.
Making Organic Certification Assessment Processes Simple by Laércio Meirelles is another initiative. Laws in Brazil are making it more and more difficult for smallholder farmers in Brazil to receive and maintain organic cotton certification. This initiative will develop a simpler system and train farmers how to use it.
Motorized Scythes by Adriano Rodrigues will convert motorcycles into a plow that can be used by farmer collectives. Manual Cotton Baler by Gilberto Barros focuses on making cotton easier to transport by offering cotton farmers the opportunity to bale their cotton on their own property using small pressing machines. The initiative - Hydraulic-Pneumatic Press for Oilseeds by Gilberto Barros - introduces a new technology capable of removing up to 40 litres of oil from seeds byproducts such as cotton, corn and sesame seeds. (SV)
Fibre2Fashion News Desk – India
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