A Positive Relationship

While cotton’s sustainability and positive environmental impact may be old news to those in our industry, it seems that consumers and retailers are just now beginning to take note. Cotton’s promoters around the world are finally beginning to see an interest in cotton’s sustainability from the end of the supply chain.

And while the sustainability of cotton is a reward in itself – after all, the world’s producers often live in or near the same fields where their cotton is grown – it never hurts when consumers begin to get the message.

Advertisement

“We ask people to rank what the important things are. They mention child labor. They mention pesticide residues. A little further down they mention biotechnology, and then way down they mention sustainability,” says Dr. Kater Hake of Cotton Incorporated.

“Now what we’re seeing with the retailers is that, just in the last two years, there’s been a huge increase in their interest in the sustainability issue. For them it’s been a really big driver. We’ve had to hire a full-time scientist to our ag research department just to focus on sustainability and to focus with the retailers on cotton’s sustainability,” Hake says, before rattling off a laundry list of global retailers who have recently taken interest in the sustainability issue.

Environmentally Responsible

Top Articles
Cotton Companion: Adjusting to New EPA Adjustments

With so much to gain from creating a more environmentally responsible, socially ethical industry, global cotton has surged to the forefront of innovation in sustainable agriculture. Often at the center of the sustainability movement are organizations such as Cotton Incorporated.

“Cotton Incorporated funds over 300 academic or public sector scientists working on cotton, and a very large part of that is devoted to increasing the long-term profitability of cotton. Just by virtue of that fact, that means greater sustainability, because you’re dealing with more efficient use of water and fertilizer and inputs, and the long term fertility and viability of the soil. So the bulk of the effort to increase profitability has the very nice side-effect of increasing sustainability,” says Hake.

Hake says the company is donating large research efforts into nitrogen fertilizer – ways to cut down on fertilizer inputs and ways to minimize the off-target movement of fertilizer. That type of effort is a classic example of something that benefits both the farmer’s livelihood and the well-being of the surrounding environment.

Innovations in Seed Technology

Of course, advances in seed technology have brought sustainability to new levels. Earlier this year, Monsanto unveiled a three-pronged sustainability plan that aims to double yields in the company’s three major crops – cotton, corn and soybeans – by the year 2030. The sustainability initiative hopes to improve farmers’ lives and conserve resources while bolstering yields. Researchers such as Monsanto’s Dr. David Albers, a Cotton Germplasm Manager, say there are innovations on the horizon that will make these goals a reality.

While Bt technology has already significantly reduced the amount of pesticides being sprayed on the crop worldwide, Monsanto has new traits in their pipeline that could further reduce pesticide use, Albers says. One such variety, Monsanto’s DP 0935 B2RF, a nectarless variety, could serve well in reducing the crop’s attractiveness to pests such as lygus.

“We have two years of data now, where we’ve been looking at how helpful the nectarless trait is to growers. With Bollgard and now Bollgard II planted widely in a situation that is post-boll weevil eradication, it’s just a much lower spray environment than what we’ve had historically,” Albers says.

“We see that typically the lygus populations are lower in the 0935, and we see that square retention can be higher than that in a normal variety planted next to it. And that can lead to less sprays, and to some higher yields, but it really leads to another tool for a grower to use as he manages lygus and other pests,” says Albers.

While other nectarless varieties have been available in the past, Albers says the company has high hopes that the 0935 variety will be the first to offer financial viability in terms of yields and grades for growers. The variety will become commercially available in 2009.

Even More Traits Coming

The company is also excited about its germplasm program that is allowing it to identify traits that will be able to handle more stress in drought-prone areas. Albers says the company is excited about the technology’s world-wide potential. Monsanto is already doing water-efficiency work with corn in conjunction with BASF in Africa, and hopes to utilize some of the same technology in Africa’s cotton growing regions. Albers says after the insect resistant traits, drought tolerance generally draws the most excitement in global markets.

“We feel confident that we’re going to have more water-use efficient traits down the road. There’s been a lot of collaboration with growers in this testing. We’re helping growers take better advantage of the moisture they have in the profile. To me, that’s a real sustainability message,” says Albers, adding that the technology can translate across national boundaries.

While the bottom line is always profitability, Monsanto representatives insist that quality of life for growers in developing countries is also a primary force behind their research. “We’ve seen colleagues in South Africa and in China and in India, where there’s real evidence to suggest that people are healthier in these rural areas because of the new technologies,” says Monsanto spokesperson Janice Person. “Seed is able to be sold in these developing markets, we just have to find a way to do that so that it’s equitable on a global stage.”

Add table

0