Better Cotton Conference 2024: Day Two Highlights

Part two of the Better Cotton Conference 2024 kicked off today, and much like the first day, the 17 sessions were incredibly engaging, inspiring and thought-provoking.

The day started with a focus on ‘Understanding Policy and Industry Trends’, examining the major sector trends and scrutinising their impact on the cotton supply chain.

1. Understanding Policy and Industry Trends

Attendees were first treated to a keynote speech by Vidhura Ralapanawe, Executive Vice President for Innovation and Sustainability at Epic Group. He emphasised the need for transformative change for the cotton industry, which is struggling to keep up with the ever-changing legislative landscape of the past five years, especially concerning climate change.   He argued that the current legislation focuses heavily on climate mitigation while neglecting adaptation, a critical issue for the Global South. He concluded by urging everyone to go beyond merely meeting legislative demands and move towards collective action to address these pressing needs. He also highlighted the need to involve suppliers to create more equitable and impactful legislation from its inception.

In the session ‘Creating an Enabling Environment in Uzbekistan: A Case Study’, participants discussed the country’s growing cotton sector, and affirmed that sustainability is not only a moral imperative, but it also makes business sense.

After that, the remaining morning’s conversations centred around the need for all stakeholders, including farmers and suppliers, to be actively involved in influencing policy-making to ensure that policies are fit for purpose and have an impact on the ground. Speakers flagged that discussions on legislation tend to focus on reporting, rather than hearing from the affected communities on their needs. They called for a shift to facilitate the inclusion of the most affected communities, so that legislation such as the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive can benefit smallholder farmers around the world.

All speakers came to the same conclusion: stakeholders need to come together to improve the sustainability of our sector, to align on a common message, and to better communicate the complexities of the cotton sector to policymakers.

2. Reporting on Data and Traceability

During the afternoon, the conversation moved towards  ‘Reporting on Data and Traceability’. Better Cotton’s Director of Traceability Jacky Broomhead led a fascinating conversation on the journey towards making Better Cotton Traceability possible. She was then joined by a diverse panel sharing their key learnings from the onboarding process, challenges of balancing regulatory compliance and delivering profit,  the potential efficiencies AI and automation could bring in the supply chain, and the role of traceability in achieving net-zero strategies. Crucially, panellists emphasised that traceability needs to be simple for it to be adopted – we must together to make the best use of data and reduce the burden on farmers as much as possible.

Tulin Akin, our other keynote speaker and the Founder of Tabit Smart Farming, drew the audience in with stories of how evolving agricultural technologies can help solve challenges in rural communities. But she also pointed out the new challenges introduced by technology and emphasised the importance of face-to-face interaction for farmers.

We then had the chance to hear directly from a lead farmer, a middleman and two ginners during a session on our First Mile Traceability pilot in Pakistan, moderated by country director Hina Fouzia. They discussed the obstacles of internet and technology access,  Better Cotton’s role in bringing stakeholders together and supporting adoption, and the importance of constantly reviewing results in order to drive improvements.

As the conference drew to a close, with over 400 attendees joining both virtually and in person, we would like to extend our sincere thanks to everybody who participated and made this event truly special. From our inspiring speakers and engaged audience members, to our dedicated colleagues and collaborators involved in planning and organising the event, it has been a remarkable two days.

We would love to keep the conversation going on social media. To share your personal highlights, takeaways and photos with us, please use the #BetterCottonConference2024 on LinkedIn, Instagram and X. We hope to see you again next year!

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