Livelihoods

Fragmented pilot projects have long defined regenerative agriculture efforts in Pakistan's cotton sector, but mounting climate and market pressures are exposing the limits of that approach. Drawing on a recent industry roundtable, Abou Bakar, Country Representative – Pakistan, CottonConnect, explains what a coordinated national framework would look like, and why farmer incentives and traceability now sit at the centre of that conversation.

Cotton is the raw material on which India's textile and apparel export ambitions rest, and for the second time in a year the government has moved to lower its cost for processors by removing import duties. The measure runs until late October this year. What it does not do is resolve the underlying tension between farm-income protection and industrial competitiveness that has made the duty a recurring site of policy conflict.

Across Latin America, cotton sectors are navigating a modernisation wave that is producing sharply unequal results. The technologies exist; so does the research capacity. What remains fragile is the institutional scaffolding that translates both into farm-level change. Dr Marcelo Paytas, Director at INTA – Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria, has spent years working at that fault line, and his diagnosis is precise.

A new lifecycle assessment released today by Cotton Incorporated reframes how the fibre's environmental performance is measured and contested. The study produces a net-negative carbon footprint at the farm gate while leaving open significant questions about the methodological assumptions and farming system consistency that underpin that finding, with implications that extend well beyond the fibre itself.

India's cotton sector has a productivity problem, a quality problem and a market-credibility problem. On Tuesday, the Union Cabinet approved a Rs 5,659.22 crore mission that proposes to address all three simultaneously, through seeds, ginning modernisation, traceability infrastructure and a national branding programme. What the mission does not address may be more revealing than what it does.

Cotton's farm-level production standard has been strengthened with a sharper regenerative agriculture focus, following BCI's release of Principles and Criteria v.3.2. The updated standard introduces targeted improvements to selected indicators, enhances auditability across diverse growing contexts, and advances BCI's broader ambition to operate as a fully regenerative standards system.

A feasibility assessment for South Africa has mapped 81 million additional garments for potential localisation by 2030, equivalent to R7.9 billion in annual manufacturing sales. The research assessed retailer demand, supplier readiness and factory-level competitiveness under the Retail Clothing, Textiles, Footwear and Leather (R-CTFL) Masterplan to test conditions for viability.

As climate risk, regulatory scrutiny, and supply-chain volatility intensify, the question facing the industry is no longer whether alternative materials can be developed, but whether they can be scaled with reliability, accountability, and long-term resilience.

His is a classic case of how an artisan from the grassroot level can rise to reach some of the most famed museums in the world. Not many know but he has, stitch by stitch, needle by needle, threaded his way into the cultural mosaic that this country is. His thread is his voice, his loom a battleground for respect. In conversation with Asif Shaikh.

Efforts to regulate global textile waste are reshaping debates over who defines sustainability and who bears its costs. A UNEP initiative to standardise “waste” classifications has triggered backlash from reuse economies, exposing how circularity policies can threaten livelihoods and distort trade while ignoring the real drivers of overproduction in wealthier manufacturing nations.