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organic cotton in Viterbo - abstract



Dear Sanetters, Sustagers, et al.

	as we can't seem to be publishing the proceedings of the workshop 
on sustainable cotton within this century, here is a little abstract on what 
was said and done that day (6 dec 95). Please direct (or cc.) any comment to
aucs@unitus.it. Thank you.

Just to remind you.
	 AUCS (university association for cooperation and development) 
was one of the organizers of a workshop on sustainable cotton at the faculty 
of agriculture here in Viterbo, Italy, the others being the italian NGOs Cospe 
and  Mani Tese. The workshop was meant to promote the Pesticides Trust 
"Cotton Chain", and generally to get some infos about the issue into our 
faculty. The workshop was preceded by three seminars about some technical 
aspects of the cotton filiere. Three lecturers were scheduled to talk at the 
workshop, Dorothy Myers from the Pesticides Trust, Dimitri Dimitrialis 
freelance/IFOAM agronomist and organic cotton producer, Lodovico Jucker 
>from  the italian Assn. of Cotton Industrials. Dr Jucker could not be there but 
sent the text of his speech. 

Dorothy Myers 
	Ms Myers related about the Pesttrust pilot project being carried out 
in Koussenar, Senegal. The decision of working "on the field" was suggested 
by several reasons: to complement and add credibility to research and policy 
advocacy functions, link the micro- to the macro-level of action; to 
experience the viability of alternative systems; to provide economic (in terms 
of both food security and  returns from cash crops) and environmental 
benefits to the farmers involved. Moreover, the following events encouraged 
this choice: a rise of input prices due to the changing trade scene; weakened 
control by state monopolies on commodities; contacts between ENDA-
PRONAT - a PAN partner in Senegal - and a group of farmers willing to 
experience organic growing of cotton. 
Cotton is usually cultivated in Koussenar under control of Sodefitex, the 
national cotton board. Sodefitex provides the farmers with credit, seeds, 
research divulging, and collects the product. Cereal-groundnut-cotton-cereal 
rotations are recommended. Pests are controlled using combinations of 
pyrethroids and organophosphates. Recommended fertilizers are NPK 50-
46-28 and urea.
 An agronomist with experience in organic cotton was contacted, and 
through him a european organization interested in buying the product. A 
study of feasibility was carried out in august, 94, and after coming to an 
agreement with 80 farmers, planting (with untreated seeds) took place in 
mid-july 95. Criteria for the farmers included amongst others use of a 0.5 ha 
(1.25 acres approx.) maximum area,  no use of chemicals in the previous 
season, crop rotation, availability of animals for manuring, no loans with 
Sodefitex. The interventions proposed focused mostly on improvement of 
soil fertility by intercropping with cowpea and use of manure - and further 
on of compost and N-fixing plants - and pest management based on the use 
of neem extract and monitoring for the development of thresholds. On the 
seeds side, Sodefitex-supplied material would be tested under the new 
conditions, looking forward to the system to produce its own seeds.  When 
the workshop took place, in december 95, harvest was yet to begin. The 
quoted paragraph below was kindly sent by D.M. and is an excerpt from 
Pesticide News No.31.
"Having completed the harvest in January,  farmers and the support team 
>from  ENDA-PRONAT and The Pesticides Trust gathered in Koussenar in 
early February to review progress and plan for the next season. Fifty-three 
farmers participated in the project in the 1995/6 season with a total of just 
over 14 has. A total of 4.6 tonnes of seed cotton was produced organically 
and is now stored at the project centre in Koussenar awaiting ginning which 
will be carried out at a small gin in the nearby town of Tambacounda. 
Although total production was less than expected, yields on the good plots 
averaged 560 kg/ha, on the less good plots 287 kg/ha and on the poorer plots 
131 kg/ha. About 1.8 tonnes of cotton fibre will be produced after ginning 
and 2.5 tonnes of cotton seed, some of which will be given back to the 
farmers after 'de-linting' for planting next season. In this way, the seed 
supply will be assured. The experience of the farmers in this past season was 
gathered at a participatory Workshop held in Koussenar. In a season with 
exceptionally low rainfall, a range of problems were identified. The main 
ones were the impact of cattle eating the crop, late sowing, some fields being 
inadequately weeded, and problems with the use and efficacy of neem pest 
control treatments. Several technical aspects of production need further 
attention in the coming season such as use of the new sprayers, the 
management of manure and spacing of plants. A start was made in 
addressing these issues in a further session with farmers and will be 
reinforced by the project staff in advance of the next planting."

Lodovico Jucker
	These were the main points of Mr Jucker's speech. His absence, 
unfortunately, made every comment and/or confrontation on the following  
impossible.

	In the textile market, products based on "environmental quality" are 
still confined to elite groups of conscious consumers, and their share doesn't 
seem to be growing. On the industry side, some of the reasons for this may 
be commercial inadequacy of goods, often proposed with a generic and/or 
unrigorous advertising, and lack of the resources needed to move consumers 
towards this type of products. 
 	On the cultural side, instead, both producers and the public seem to 
have increased their level of consciousness. In some national markets (not 
the italian) assuring the consumer about safety standard is common practice; 
thus, everyone in the production process is induced to consider 
environmental quality indispensable, no more a "plus" feature.
	The problem is, there is still confusion on what are the 
environmental standards one should respect; on both supply and demand 
sides terms like environment-friendly and healthy, ecological and 
unbleached (raw?), are often used as synonims; laboratory tests are often 
considered the only reliable proof of ecological quality.  The commodity 
itself is not given a great deal of importance, provided that it does not 
contain dangerous residues. 
	This situation is supposed to change when the european "Ecolabel" 
will introduce clear criteria of quality. The reliability of such label will 
probably broaden the market for "ecological" products, pushing to a 
changing of the traditional processes (e.g. the dyeing and finishing stages 
will surely go through a deep revision). 
	As to cotton, SKAL has first attempted - in Europe - to establish 
standards for a sustainable textile production, admitting only organically 
produced fibers. For the Ecolabel scheme two criteria are being discussed: 
organic growing and laboratory tests to check for forbidden chemicals in the 
fibers. We are strongly against this second option as we consider such tests 
not significative; as to the use of organic cotton, our organization would 
surely accept it, provided that price and availability allowed the
substitution.  
A third possibility could be devised that involved the production and 
transformation sectors in a common system of rules, to be established by 
agricultural-environmental technicians; regulations should be compatible 
with economic feasibility (i.e. something that could be developed on a large 
scale). An international organization should exercise control  and assure 
respect of such rules along the filiere.  

Dimitri Dimitrialis
	Mr Dimitrialis made a very interesting survey on various aspects of 
organic cotton growing in Greece, somehow hard to sum up, as it was made 
up of small (and useful) technical hints regarding agronomical, pest 
management, marketing issues.
	In Greece, the area interested by cotton is about 260,000 ha., 
yielding some 700,000-1,000,0000 tons. Cotton production is heavily 
influenced by the agricultural policy of the European Union. A production 
threshold of around 1,000,000 tons has been established within the Union 
(Greece and Spain are the most important producing countries). On the 
other hand, prices are as heavily kept high (approximately 5-fold the world 
price) with a system of subsidies to the transformation industries, that 
receive them to buy the community product. (*) 
	Irrigated cotton yields 3-4 tons/ha (unginned), while without 
irrigation the yield goes down to 1-1.5 tons/ha. Obviously, dry growers show 
more interest for organic cultivation, as they do not suffer from a big 
reduction in yield, and have to face less pest management problems. 
	The main technical problems seem to be associated to weed and 
pest control and harvesting. Weeds are controlled mechanically, but the hard 
part comes with weeds on the row. As to pest control, pink boll worm and 
green worm are the most dangerous insects, together with Aphis gossypii 
and Tetranichus. A good rotation does a lot of the job, anyway treatments 
with rotenons, pyrethrum, Bt, neem extract (note how the use of neem is not 
authorized by greek laws, although suggested by the EU) are carried out 
when needed. A degrees/days method has been implemented to monitor the 
possibility of parasitic attacks. Mating disruption is also adopted to prevent 
infestations. Harvesting is manual, and this obviously causes a rise of costs. 
	Leguminosae as preceding crop provide some nitrogen; manure and 
leftovers are the other organic fertilizers used. Leftovers from olive oil 
extraction, wine-making, and cotton ginning, after opportune treatments, are 
very good sources of nutrients, and help structuring the soil.  
	Ginning may represent a problem, as organic and "chemical" cotton 
must be kept separated, and the production is still little and scattered. 


	Short communications were made by representatives of  some 
organizations. Mr Carnemolla of AIAB, the biggest association of organic 
producers in Italy, pointed out the lack of a specific EU discipline on organic 
(though he'd prefer "sustainable") cotton. The organic agriculture 
regulations only regard products meant for human feeding. He also invited 
the organizations carrying on projects in developing countries to pay special 
attention to approaching local people, to avoid phenomena of "bio-
colonialism". Mr Fabbri from Greenpeace focused on the residuals of 
organochlorines formed in the process of bleaching or deriving from 
defoliation. (*) Mr Morganti from the Italian Ministry of Agriculture gave 
the infos on the EU policies on cotton quoted above. 


	 Thanks for reaching the end of such an awfully written thing. I'm 
the only one to flame for any mistake and/or omission. 

	AUCS is trying to (find the money to) develop a small pilot project 
on organic cotton in Senegal (a fashionable country...the reason is Patrizia 
Merlino and Andrea Ferrante, heart and soul of the assn., have been 
working there with a NGO for two years). For info, advising, whatever, 
write us. 

					That's all, folks!

marco biagetti 	

				
aucs - associazione universitaria per la cooperazione e lo sviluppo
c/o Facolta' di Agraria, 
Universita' della Tuscia
Via S.C. de Lellis  
01100 Viterbo Italy
aucs@unitus.it