Over ten years of breeding has resulted in success: two new organic cotton varieties have recently been made available to farmers in India.
These are the first ever cotton varieties of India bred under organic conditions. The varieties were developed through a decentralised organic participatory breeding programme of FiBL Switzerland and partners.
The Context: In recent decades, it has become increasingly difficult for farmers to obtain good quality organic cotton seed.
- Genetically modified (GM) seeds from large companies dominate the market and threaten the purity of other varieties.
- Traditional, non-GM seeds have not been sufficiently developed and often do not meet the expectations of farmers regarding yield and processors regarding fibre quality.
The New Varieties: The two varieties have been tested under organic conditions and officially released by the State Seed Sub Committee of Madhya Pradesh, the largest organic cotton-growing state in India.
- The Committee gave the green light to the two first-ever non-GM cotton varieties for organic agriculture on 8 September.
- The released varieties are high-yielding and meet industrial fibre quality requirements.
- They are derived from two different cotton species: Gossypium arboreum, commonly known as traditional or Desi Cotton and Gossypium hirsutum, American upland cotton.
- Both were bred under organic conditions and are suitable for organic, agroecological, regenerative and low input farming systems.
- These improved varieties are the outcome of joint efforts made under the project Seeding the Green Future.
- The project is a participatory organic cotton breeding programme which directly supports smallholder farmers in India and involves them in the research for development.
- The project's main objective is to secure the availability of cotton seed free of genetic modification to improve the integrity of the organic cotton value chain.
