Few crops in the world can be as impactful as cotton. Grown in more than 70 countries and processed in many more, the world’s most important natural fibre sustainably clothes the world while transforming lives for tens of millions of people.
As we approach the opening of the International Cotton Advisory Committee’s 81st Plenary Meeting, to be held 2–5 December 2023 in Mumbai, the ICAC is pleased to hold this event in the world’s largest producing country. Our theme, ‘Cotton Value Chain: Local Innovations for Global Prosperity’, is timely to reflect on the positive things that cotton brings to our lives every day.
Food, fibre, minimal waste: Cotton provides fibre for 23% of our clothing and exhibits a remarkable level of versatility, as one of the few commodities that provides both food and fibre. While textiles and apparel are its best-known products, cotton seeds can be crushed to provide cooking oil for human consumption, and protein-packed feed cakes for livestock as well. Cotton is used to make pharmaceuticals, currency notes, cellophane, boards for construction, charcoal, and many other products. In fact, if the cotton plant were used for all its potential applications, only 3% of its biomass would go to waste.
Income: Cotton is globally recognised as a poverty-reducing crop. Each tonne of cotton produced generates full-time, year-round employment for five people throughout the cotton-textile value chain. It provides employment to many women in less-developed countries, giving them an opportunity to help feed their families and send their children to school.
Crucially, cotton is the sole source of income for many small-holder farmers in many parts of the world—especially in Africa. It is also a key crop for many smallholder farmers in India. This is especially important in arid regions where other cash crops cannot be grown. Because cotton is a xerophyte, it is well-adapted to thrive in dry, arid conditions where other crops can’t survive. This enables cotton help some of the world’s poorest people live better.
Climate change: Cotton can fight climate change, which is a grave threat to humanity. All plants pull carbon out of the atmosphere as they grow, and cotton is no exception. However, it does something most other plants can’t: use carbon to create cellulose. Each kg of cotton generates about 1.7 kg of greenhouse cases during production, but since cotton fibres are 97% cellulose, it also sequesters 2.2 kg of carbon. By taking planet-warming gases out of our atmosphere and sequestering them in its biomass, cotton can have a net negative carbon footprint. In contrast, more use of cotton means less use of synthetic fibres like polyester—which generates three times as many greenhouse gases during its production than cotton does.
Cotton can even help other agricultural crops reduce their own carbon footprint because it can be blended with pineapple and banana fibres. After those fruits are harvested, the remaining biomass would typically be burned in the fields, so blending them with cotton doesn’t just prevent those fibres from being wasted, it also prevents the air pollution that would occur if they had been burned.
A global celebration: One of the most important days on the cotton calendar is 7 October, when people, businesses, and organisations of all kinds celebrate World Cotton Day. Launched in 2019 at World Trade Organization headquarters in Geneva, it has become a global phenomenon. Reflecting this, the United Nations recognised the importance of cotton when it passed resolution A/RES/75/318 in August 2021, which reserved 7 October as World Cotton Day on its permanent calendar. The celebrations that take place around the globe on that date each year continue to grow, and the ICAC will work tirelessly to continue that momentum.
Protecting the environment: Finally, it’s important to understand that the more the world turns to cotton, the less plastic pollution we release into the environment. Microfibres—the tiny pieces of plastic that are released when synthetic fabrics degrade—have been found at the top of the Himalaya mountains and at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean, and now they’re invading the food chain, and even our own bodies. So, every time a consumer chooses a cotton product over one made from polyester, nylon, or another man-made fibre, they contribute to keeping our planet and the things that live on it safe and healthy.
Footnote: When the hundreds of government officials, private sector professionals, and representatives from all sectors of the cotton textile value chain convene at the Jio World Convention Centre for the 81st Plenary Meeting, they will all be doing their part to help the ICAC achieve its vision for the future: ‘Prosperity through a sustainable cotton industry’. We look forward to working with India, our ICAC member governments, and our stakeholders to expand sustainable prosperity through cotton around the world.
