Agriculture

A new initiative to help wool and cotton producers in the US is targeted at greenhouse gas reduction, emissions and sequestration, along with equity, social justice, including benefits for historically underserved groups.

An ongoing project in Australia is exploring the challenges faced by cotton growers associated with rising production costs, fluctuating yields, and regulatory constraints.

The golden fibre jute has lost much of its sheen in India and continues to deteriorate as its cultivation dropped by 20% in the last nine years. 

The Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) has started the three-stage OECD Alignment Assessment which would help textile companies gain access to a due diligence process, enabling them to identify, assess, and mitigate adverse impacts throughout their supply chains. 

Textile Exchange has come up with the Regenerative Agriculture Outcome Framework, perhaps the first ever open-source, documented framework that lays out key indicators that make for a regenerative system, encouraging collaboration by including expectations for both brands and growers.

A first of its kind Small Farmer Atlas brought out by nonprofit Solidaridad is a comprehensive satisfaction survey detailing their inputs on issues ranging from prosperity and income, to sustainability, bargaining power and land use.

Primark's Sustainable Cotton Programme trains farmers on using fewer chemical pesticides and fertilisers and less water, thus lowering input costs and improving profits for farmers. The retailer has now announced that it will train an additional 125,000 smallholder cotton farmers in more sustainable farming methods in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh by the end of 2023.