Cotton

The US Department of Agriculture has granted $30 million to support the expansion of climate-smart wool and cotton production on 135 farms and ranches spread across 2.1 million acres.

Charges of greenwashing against some MNCs has pushed Textile Exchange to effect a policy change to its Organic Content Standard (OCS), making site inputs from the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) mandatory in a bid to provide traceability of all transaction certificate data back to the original farm source and farm input.

The first ever cotton varieties bred under organic conditions, developed through a decentralised organic participatory breeding programme, have recently been made available to farmers in India. These improved varieties are the outcome of joint efforts made under the project Seeding the Green Future. The varieties were developed through a decentralised organic participatory breeding programme of FiBL Switzerland and partners.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has selected the US Cotton Trust Protocol to lead the US Climate Smart Cotton Program with a funding ceiling of $90 million. This will be one of the 70 projects selected under the first pool of the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities funding opportunity.

UK's CottonConnect and the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC) have signed an agreement to work together on knowledge sharing, innovation, environmental sustainability assessment and joint project initiatives.

The ensuing 36th International Cotton Conference will explore, among other things, the issue of traceability in supply chains. The subject has gained prominence in the light of the proposed EU supply chain law, and demands for transparency and greater sustainability worldwide.

The twin climate disasters—the drought in Texas, US and the floods in Pakistan—have ensured that the world natural fibre production will be down by 1.1 million tonnes this year, the Discover Natural Fibres Initiative (DNFI) has reported in its latest monthly update on the segment.

The 36th International Cotton Conference will be embedded inside a Cotton Week. With the motto ‘Cotton Decoded’, the event will explore cotton research as well as a wide range of topics along the entire supply chain.

Indian market regulator SEBI has suspended trading in cotton futures on MCX for a month. The trading will remain suspended to revise contract specifications in consultations with various stakeholders and also allow wider value-chain participation.

The Walmart Foundation announced it has provided a $2,000,000, three-year grant to the Soil Health Institute's (SHI) U.S. Regenerative Cotton Fund (USRCF) to scale activities of the project and expand the initiative to Alabama and South Carolina.