Better Cotton Conference 2024: Day One Highlights

The Better Cotton Conference 2024 finally kicked off today in Istanbul, Türkiye –one of the most important cotton-producing countries in the world.

The day featured a range of insights across 18 different sessions, from plenary talks to interactive workshops and breakouts, all focused on accelerating impact for cotton farming communities.

1. Putting People First

Our first theme, ‘Putting People First’, focused on centring farmers and farm workers, challenging our audience on what it means to ensure a living income and decent work for cotton communities.

Aarti Kapoor, Founder and Executive Director of human rights agency Embode, centred her keynote on how individuals can drive positive impact across supply chains:

• Draw the big picture – develop a collective vision for the cotton value chain so that everyone is working towards the same goals
• Name your role – identify where in that value chain you can create impact
• Clarify where you are in your journey – ensure projects and other activities are achievable and don’t fall by the wayside
• Identify your next steps – decide what you need to do next, and how you will do it

Building on this, Lars Van Doremalen, Impact Director at Better Cotton, reiterated the importance of discussing how to drive farmer income throughout the conference. Meanwhile, Leyla Shamchiyeva, our Senior Decent Work Manager, highlighted that to move the needle on decent work challenges, we need to address root causes, including poverty and lack of awareness of rights, before connecting communities to social safety nets. 

Later, in a one-on-one chat with Aarti, Better Cotton Farmer Nazia Parveen shared her story, of overcoming community criticism and barriers in Pakistan and creating a life she and her family are proud of. Nazia detailed how losing family members had led to her taking greater responsibility in cotton farming, and stressed that women are equal to men and as such should be enabled to support themselves. She closed out her session by emphasising that other women mustn’t be held back in the same way that she was when she came into agriculture.

2. Driving Change At Field Level

In the afternoon, focus turned to our second theme, ‘Driving Change at Field Level’, as experts discussed scaling impact to support cotton farming communities in the fight against climate change.

In a panel with Lewis Perkins of the Apparel Impact Institute and Gray Maguire of Anthesis, moderated by Laila Petrie from 2050, they discussed the advantages and disadvantages of carbon markets, with a focus on the impact on farmers. “Opportunity”, “risk” and “confusion” were just some of the words that the audience associated with carbon markets. The panel explained the differences between insetting and offsetting, highlighted the ‘Unlock’ Project as a case study, and reiterated the importance of driving investment within supply chains.

Afterwards, field-level representatives, including farmers and instructors, discussed the ways in which they’re adopting regenerative agricultural practices. From large farms to smallholder operations, speakers from India, Tajikistan and the US shared their perspectives and insights, touching on the practices they leverage to drive field-level progress.

What were your personal highlights from day one? To get involved in the conversation on social media, share your thoughts, reflections and photos with us on LinkedIn, Instagram and X using the #BetterCottonConference2024.

The conference continues tomorrow, when we will be focusing on ‘Understanding Policy and Industry Challenges’ and ‘Reporting on Data and Traceability’ – we look forward to joining you in the discussions!

Share