Organic cotton: Healing wounds in Vidarbha

Besides, it has been established that organic cotton involves more expenditure. But Shamika presented evidences to contradict this theory. The experience of farmers showed that while a lower number of pesticide sprays were required in the first two years of Bt cotton adoption, subsequently the pesticide requirement increased. Now the number of pesticide sprays required is equal to or more than that in the pre-Bt cotton period. A major advantage in growing organic cotton is the drastic reduction in input costs involved in seeds and pesticides with an increase in net income per year.

"Organic cotton farming means lesser expenditure even if it adds to the overall labour, as it means employing traditional methods," as per Aanand Mor, MD of EcoFarms India, a for-profit social enterprise which has tied up with around 16,000 farmers in Maharashtra and Odisha for organic products. "The beauty of organic cotton farming is that the yield increases with the number of years, e.g. if a farmer produces three quintals of organic cotton per acre in the first year, he is likely to produce seven quintals in the same area after a few years. With the fourth and fifth year of cultivation, farmers see an improvement in their overall productivity. Organic cotton farming enriches soil and improves fertility. This further makes it feasible for the cultivation of any crop."

Organic cotton produced in India is of an international standard, and that is the reason so much of it is exported. There have been credibility issues in the past for Indian organic cotton because of the mischief played by some manufacturers/traders. But nowadays, there is hardly any scope for it because the price difference between conventional cotton and organic cotton is merely of 2 per cent, he said. Further, if brands as a part of CSR activity, try to clean the entire value chain, especially the farmers who are the base of the pyramid-the most important link in the value chain, and compensate them directly as per their inputs, such mischievous practices can be stopped altogether.

"I am not an authority to comment on why farmer suicides are rampant in Vidarbha," Mor maintained. "But as far as I understand, it is because the cost of production keeps going up year-after-year, and productivity hardly increases. Organic cotton can fill up this gap with fair pricing and a systematic approach. The farming of this variant is especially a boon for rain-fed areas like Vidarbha which largely does not have irrigation facilities. We have observed that organic cotton farmers have been able to sustain even in varying climatic conditions like heavy rainfall, scanty rainfall, no rainfall or erratic rainfall. Plants become more resistant to vagaries of monsoon. It is all the more visible in the case of small and marginal farmers."