The Aid by Trade Foundation (AbTF) has launched the Regenerative Cotton Standard (RCS) as a new standard for sustainable cotton.
- AbTF’s new standard expands its future-facing portfolio and offers both textile companies and cotton farmers a new holistic approach for responding to growing challenges in the cotton and textile industries.
- The RCS goes beyond the existing successful cotton standards—Cotton made in Africa (CmiA) and Cotton made in Africa Organic.
- The RCS will support farmers in becoming more resilient to the effects of climate change, and also offer companies a solution for future-proofing the production of cotton as a key raw material for their textiles.
- The standard combines the wealth of experience that AbTF’s successful cotton standards have already gathered, with new approaches to regenerative agriculture and to community participation in rural areas.
The standard: The Regenerative Cotton Standard centres on small-scale farmers and on incorporating their rich store of agricultural knowledge into a cotton production system that supports and strengthens natural regenerative processes.
- It combines proven approaches to improving human rights and environmental aspects in cotton production by supporting measures for adapting to climate change, for actively including small-scale farming communities, and for promoting animal welfare.
- Apart from offering small-scale farming communities optimal market access, RCS supports agricultural community projects, which also create opportunities for mutual learning.
- When working their fields in accordance with the RCS standard, farmers receive support with applying proven cultivation practices like expanded crop rotation, optimised biomass usage, mixed crops, and agroforestry systems.
- This enables them to increase the climate resilience and fertility of their fields, restore depleted soil, and make it fit for farming again.
- To equip the farmers against individual crops failing, the new standard makes a point of supporting them in diversifying their crop rotation and crop types.
- The RCS offers all participating stakeholders in the supply chain the advantage of being able to meet increasingly strict requirements for sustainability reporting.
What they said:
We are glad that the Regenerative Cotton Standard will enrich our foundation’s family of standards, starting immediately. We are certain that RCS will meet the high standard of our clients because it combines high-quality cotton with strong social and ecological credentials. This is supported by the fact that we are already seeing great interest in RCS from both existing and new partners.
— Tina Stridde
Managing Director
Aid by Trade Foundation
