When Indian icon Mahatma Gandhi took up the baton forhome-grown cotton a century ago, he may not have realised the devastatingimpact its cultivation would have on the land he so loved. Cotton is a thirstyplant and parts of India drought-prone. But the intensive farming process forcotton leaches the soil and requires high pesticide and fertiliser use thatpollutes further downstream.
Now in the southeastern district of Warangal, dotted withstatues to the independence leader in his trademark cotton dhoti, a project togrow the fibre in a way that causes less harm to the land is taking root. Aninitiative of green group WWF, the project in an area covering 103 villagesseeks to help struggling farmers reduce input costs, improve yields, and lessentheir environmental footprint by cutting the use of chemicals and water."It works better," stated 63-year-old Karra Adireddy, a cotton farmerfor two decades who has been in the project from the start, at the village ofNurjahanpally in Andhra Pradesh.
The India Sustainable Cotton Initiative started in theregion in 2006 with just 16 hectares and 37 farmers, and now covers more than21,000 hectares and nearly 12,000 farmers. Some estimates say the project hasbrought a three percent increase in yield and a 25 percent reduction in costs.Local NGO Mari (Modern Architects for Rural India), which runs the initiativealongside the WWF, said farmers involved in the project used 61 percent and 51percent less water than normal in 2009 and 2010 respectively. Last year, theyused 93 percent less pesticides and 25 percent less chemical fertiliser thanfarmers who had not adopted the better management practices.
Project farmers now use drip irrigation and dig wateringfunnels near the roots of their plants rather than sucking dry boreholes andlosing scarce water to evaporation through sprinkling. Instead of chemicalfertiliser, many use plant and garlic extracts as pest repellents. And the farmers sign a code of conduct, undertakingnot to use pregnant women and children as cotton-pickers -- a common practicein a labour-intensive industry. Adireddy said he used to pay 1,200 rupees for a50 kilogram bag of chemical fertiliser, but now uses a fermented mixture of cowdung and urine, palm sugar and ghee, to nourish his six-acre field. Accordingto the WWF, about seven percent of farmers in developing countries, or 90million people, rely on cotton for their livelihoods.
