Our mission at the Better Cotton Initiative is to make global cotton production better for the people who produce it, better for the environment it grows in and better for the sector’s future. We include people in our mission because Better Cotton training doesn’t just impact BCI Farmers alone.
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The Israeli cotton sector may be small, but its cotton farmers use some of the world’s most efficient irrigation methods, collaborating effectively to address key sustainability challenges, and growing very high quality, extra-long staple cotton.
Image ©ICB
The Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) is delighted to announce that its longstanding partner in the country, the Israel Cotton Production and Marketing Board (ICB) is now a BCI Strategic Partner. This follows the successful benchmarking of the ICB’s Israel Cotton Production Standard with the Better Cotton Standard System (BCSS). Benchmarking confers one-way recognition of other credible cotton sustainability standard systems, and is a key cornerstone of BCI’s long-term goal of national embedding.
“BCI is pleased to be strengthening its long-standing relationship with ICB, an enthusiastic contributor to the BCI community of companies and organisations, as it joins the growing ranks of BCI Strategic Partners.
We welcome the successful benchmarking of the Israel Cotton Production Standard and thank everyone involved with this work.”
Alan McClay, CEO, Better Cotton Initiative
Cotton production is highly mechanised in Israel, and its growers are well supported by a robust network of extension services. A total of 58 BCI licensed farms produced 9,000 tonnes of Better Cotton in the 2018-19 cotton season.
“We thank BCI for the benchmarking process and are proud to become aligned with its sustainable principles and criteria promoting excellence in cotton production, environmental considerations and decent human involvement.
In becoming a Strategic Partner ICB management and growers are ever more committed to the sustainability of the cotton sector and assume responsibility for its long-term preservation.”
Yizhar Landau, Managing Director, ICB
ICB is a farmer-owned producer organisation that represents all cotton farmers in the country. It has been an Implementing Partner of BCI since 2016, and all Israeli cotton farmers are enrolled in the BCI programme in Israel. The ICB coordinates relations between farmers, other supply chain actors and research and development institutions in Israel.
In 2018, ICB began developing its own cotton standard system – the Israel Cotton Production Standard (ICPS), pursuing the successful benchmarking with the BCSS in 2020. In doing so, Israel joins a select number of countries which have successfully benchmarked national standards with the Better Cotton Standard System. All Israeli farms continue to be eligible to market their cotton as Better Cotton.
About the Israel Cotton Production and Marketing Board (ICB)
The Israel Cotton Production and Marketing Board (ICB) is a voluntary farmer-owned producer organisation that represents all cotton growers in the country. The organisation provides sectorial leadership and coordinates relations between growers, supply chain actors and other stakeholders in Israel.
ICB engages in classing and organised marketing of the entire Israeli cotton crop. Additional functions include production and plant protection activities including field extension, administration of working capital funding, coordination of research and development and grower representation.
ICB and its collaborating Producer Units (PUs) administer the implementation of the Israel Cotton Production Standard System (ICPSS) in Israel.
Read moreBetween August 2019 and October 2020, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ) funded a BCI programme in Maharashtra, India, to engage approximately 140,000 farmers in the Nandurbar, Chandrapur and Nagpur districts.
The programme aimed to promote sustainable environmental and social agricultural practices, with a focus on increasing farmer income through better yields and market connectivity, while also improving environmental and decent work practices.
Case Study: Women’s Self-Help Groups in Chandrapur
Through one of the programme’s workstreams, BCI Implementing Partner Ambuja Cement Foundation (ACF) launched an initiative in the Jiwati block of the Chandrapur district to explore how women’s ‘self-help groups’ could boost women’s incomes through collectively buying cotton and then trading it onwards. The initiative eventually led to 33 self-help groups being set up in the district, with the groups able to benefit from seed capital provided by the local office of the Maharashtra State Rural Livelihood Mission.
One such self-help group was the Jangudevi Women Self-Help Group, who earned a surplus of €1,250 over a three-month period. Read more about their group and this initiative in this first case study from the programme: Sowing the Seeds of Gender Empowerment in Cotton Value Chains of Maharashtra.
Image ©GIZ | One of the women’s groups set up in Chandrapur district.
We will be releasing further case studies from the GIZ-funded programme in the coming weeks and months.
From supporting disadvantaged groups through entrepreneurial activities to creating animated training videos, learn more about BCI Implementing Partners’ innovations.
Read morePurpose is the demonstration of a business’s positive impact on relevant social and environmental issues, to create value for individuals, the business and wider society.
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A step further than sustainability – why communicating purpose is key to success.
On Tuesday 11 May, BCI will be joined by Brand Purpose experts, GOOD Agency, as they explore the primary drivers of purpose and unpick the ways in which brands can mobilise stakeholders, colleagues, and customers around their purpose and sustainability initiatives to create more value, now and in the future.
This session will look at the forces that have created an unstoppable momentum behind “purpose”; defined as “the demonstration of positive impact on relevant social and environmental issues, to create value for individuals, the business and wider society”.
GOOD Agency will also share their latest audience-first research and bring the perspective of brands to reveal what your stakeholders really feel about purpose commitments and communications.
Learn more about Chris Norman and Pete Grant.
Registration
Date: Tuesday, 11 May 2021
Time: 15:00-16:00 BST (GMT + 1)
Fee: €40
BCI Members receive a 50% discount – please log into the members only event page on the BCI website to access the discount code.
Benefits of Registration
Once you are registered for the event, you can make full use of the event platform to:
All series sponsors can be found on our event webpage.
Learn more about Good Agency’s approach to Purpose in our latest blog.
About the Cotton Sustainability Digital Series
In 2021, BCI launched a new Cotton Sustainability Digital Series. Sessions and speakers originally curated for BCI’s in-person 2021 Global Cotton Sustainability Conference will now be coming to you live online, at more accessible rates and times across the entire year. Join BCI and partners through 2021 for the monthly Cotton Sustainability Digital Series, where the entire sector will come together to shape a more sustainable future for cotton.
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Approximately half a billion people around the world currently face severe water scarcity, and nearly half of the global population lives in regions where freshwater is polluted. Caring for our water resources — both locally and globally — is one of the biggest sustainability challenges of our times. At the Better Cotton Initiative, we believe that solutions require a water stewardship approach where individual and collective actions benefit both people and nature.
On World Water Day 2021, we want to highlight the great work that BCI’s partners, cotton farmers, and farming communities around the world are doing to tackle water challenges in cotton.
Water and cotton
While cotton is often labelled a ‘thirsty crop’, it is actually relatively drought tolerant. The problem is that it is often grown in arid environments where it cannot be rainfed, making farmers reliant on water-intensive irrigation systems. As a result, cotton production can impact freshwater resources in a few ways:
Freshwater is a shared and limited resource, making water scarcity and pollution major global issues.
What is BCI doing?
BCI’s on-the-ground partners work with millions of cotton farmers across the globe, providing training on more sustainable farming practices. A key focus of our work, and one of the seven Better Cotton Principles and Criteria, is water stewardship. We seek to provide farmers and farming communities with the tools and techniques to use water in a way that is environmentally sustainable, economically beneficial and socially equitable. This means:
Seeing the results
As a result of water stewardship training and guidance, many BCI Farmers are now mapping water resources, managing soil moisture, managing water quality and applying efficient irrigation practices.
Looking at BCI’s 2018-19 cotton season results, we see that BCI Farmers in four of the countries we analysed (China, India, Pakistan and Tajikistan) used less water than comparison farmers. For example, BCI Farmers in Pakistan used 15% less water than farmers who didn’t participate in BCI training sessions.
Stories from the field
Learn how one BCI Farmer’s commitment to trialling innovative water-saving practices led him to install Tajikistan’s first tubular irrigation system, saving almost two million litres of water in just one cotton season. Read Sharipov’s story.
Find out how an educational game of Snakes and Ladders, introduced to 24 schools in cotton farming communities across Gujarat, encouraged children to share positive messages about sustainable water use with their families and communities. Learn more.
You can learn more about BCI’s approach to water stewardship in the Better Cotton Principles and Criteria.
Read moreToday is International Women’s Day 2021, a global event to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. At the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), we are celebrating women’s achievements by sharing inspiring stories from the field, reflecting on and reinforcing our goals on gender equality in cotton, and sharing resources with our peers and members.
What is International Women’s Day?
International Women’s Day (IWD), marked annually on 8 March, is a call to action to accelerate progress and awareness about gender equality. IWD dates back to 1911, and over a hundred years later we’re still far from a world of gender equality.
What does this mean for BCI?
Gender inequality remains a pressing challenge in the cotton sector. Globally, women in cotton production take on varied, essential roles, but their labour is often unrecognised and under-remunerated. Where the contributions of women remain invisible, their critical role in adopting more sustainable practices, and creating a transformed, equitable cotton future, is missed. For example, a 2018-19 study in in Maharashtra, India revealed that only 33% of women cotton cultivators surveyed had attended training in the last two years. Yet, when training was provided to women, there was a 30-40% increase in adoption of better farming practices. There is a clear business case to create better access to resources and knowledge for women in cotton. As an industry leader, BCI has an opportunity to address these challenges and to integrate gender equality as a cornerstone of sustainable cotton.
Learn more!
Stories from the Field
Women in cotton farming communities can face significant discrimination and challenges, partly as a result of pre-existing social attitudes and beliefs about gender roles. BCI and our partners seek to ensure equal and respectful treatment for all women in cotton farming communities, and today, we’d like to celebrate women’s achievements by sharing stories from the field from Pakistan and Mali.
Following her mother’s footsteps, Ruksana Kausar married a cotton farmer when she was young. Like many women in her community — where cotton communities farm the land to survive — Ruksana works hard on her family’s cotton farm, sowing seeds, weeding the fields and picking cotton amid the searing heat of Punjab. Learn more about Ruksana’s journey.
Since 2010, Tata Djire has worked for BCI’s on-the-ground partner in Mali, Association des Producteurs de Coton Africains, where she introduced the BCI Programme. Tata was instrumental to the success of the BCI Programme in Mali, supporting smallholder farmers and women in agriculture. Learn more about Tata’s journey.
Meet Pakistani cotton Farmer Almas Parveen and hear about her inspiring journey, enabling other farmers — both men and women — to benefit from sustainable agricultural practices. Almas regularly gives talks to girls in schools, and she helped to establish a new primary school in her village. Learn more about Almas’ journey.
BCI Gender Strategy and Working Group
The BCI Gender Strategy, published in November 2019, outlines our action plan to mainstream a gender sensitive approach. The strategy presents the context, challenges and opportunities for men and women in cotton. BCI also launched a cross-functional Gender Working Group in July 2020. The purpose of the Group is to: establish shared accountability for delivering BCI’s Gender Strategy, create learning and leadership opportunities for all participants, support the development of BCI’s 2030 strategy and impact targets, and action new opportunities and partnerships.
Network
This week, Business Fights Poverty is hosting a free, online Gender Summit on 9, 10 & 11 March with guest speakers tackling the following themes – “Unleashing Enterprise”, “Tackling Gender-Based Violence”, and “Building Farmer Livelihoods.” To register, just follow this link.
Celebrate International Women’s Day with us online! We will be sharing updates throughout the week. Join the conversation. #GenerationEquality #ChooseToChallenge #IWD2021
Read moreWe spoke with The Renewal Workshop about the demand for circular business models, barriers to change, and the potential impacts on cotton production.
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Circular business models are on the rise in the apparel and textile industry, but how will this impact the cotton sector and cotton farmers in particular?
Historically, businesses have followed a ‘take-make-waste’ linear model. Beyond consumer use, there have been few systems in place to ensure the original value of products and materials is maintained. Circular business models on the other hand are regenerative and aim to eliminate waste and ensure the continual use of resources.
On Thursday 11 March, BCI will be joined by Nicole Bassett, Co-Founder of The Renewal Workshop, to explore circular businesses in action and their positive contributions to long-term sustainability. We will also dive into the questions that arise on how circularity might impact the cotton sector and cotton farming communities in the future.
Registration
Date: Thursday, 11 March 2021
Time: 15:00-16:00 GMT
Fee: €40
BCI Members receive a 50% discount – please log into the members only event page on the BCI website to access the discount code.
This episode of the Cotton Sustainability Digital Series is brought to you by H&M.
Benefits of Registration
Once you are registered for the event, you can make full use of the event platform to:
All series sponsors can be found on our event webpage.
Learn more about how the textile and apparel industry is moving towards circularity in our latest blog.
About the Cotton Sustainability Digital Series
In 2021, BCI launched a new 12-part Cotton Sustainability Digital Series. Sessions and speakers originally curated for BCI’s in-person 2021 Global Cotton Sustainability Conference will now be coming to you live online, at more accessible rates and times across the entire year. Join BCI and partners through 2021 for the monthly Cotton Sustainability Digital Series, where the entire sector will come together to shape a more sustainable future for cotton.
Read moreThe Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) is delighted to announce that representatives from Adidas, Anandi, Pesticide Action Network and Supima have been elected to the BCI Council.
Read moreThe Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) engages and brings together the entire cotton sector, from farmers, ginners and spinners to civil society organisations and major global retailers and brands, to establish more sustainable cotton as the norm.
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