Based on a definition developed within the UN system, sustainable cotton production is the ability to produce cotton today without diminishing the ability of future generations to produce cotton. Over the past four decades, as the use of inorganic fertilizers and pesticides have been incorporated into production practices, farmers and researchers have tried to develop ecologically sound production systems for cotton and other crops. More insecticides are used per hectare of cotton than on many other row crops, and so interest in developing sustainable production systems has focused on cotton.
Many people associate sustainability exclusively with environmental standards, and environmental protection is surely an important issue. However, environmental protection involves more than the avoidance of harm. Sustainable production must also ensure that resources are used efficiently so as to ensure that society’s needs for cotton products can be met at a minimum of resource costs.
Further, sustainable production systems must also respect social and economic standards. Social standards are generally assumed to mean the conventions agreed by members of the International Labor Organization (ILO). The ILO is unique among multilateral institutions in that it includes not just governments but also Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) and the private sector, including employer and employee organizations.
Since the end of World War II, world cotton production increased approximately four fold, rising from about 7 million metric tons to a record of 27 million metric tons in 2004/05. Most people would agree that a majority of the cotton produced in the 1940s and early 1950s was sustainable. Synthetic fertilizer and pesticides were still in limited use and most of the work related to cotton production was performed with animal traction and hand labor. During the 1950s, 1960s and through the 1970s, world cotton production roughly doubled to around 14 million tons, but the proportion of world production that was being produced sustainably probably declined. Indiscriminate use of insecticides, expansions in the use of irrigation without regard to water quality or water use, and production methods that contributed to soil erosion resulted in unwise use of resources in some areas. Probably the worst example of unsustainable production practices occurred in Central America, where cotton production peaked at 360,000 tons in 1977/78 and has since fallen to essentially zero. By the late 1970s and early 1980s, probably less than half of world cotton production was being produced sustainably.
However, changes in production practices, driven by rising input costs, new technologies and increased awareness of sustainability concerns, have resulted in a rise in the proportion of world cotton production that meets the UN definition for sustainability. One metric by which the world cotton industry is judged is pesticide use, and since 1988, the percent of world pesticide sales formulated for application on cotton areas has fallen from 11% to 8%.
Today, with world cotton production at about 24 million tons, the ICAC Secretariat estimates that about 60 percent would meet objective measures of sustainability based on the UN definition of not reducing the ability of future generations to produce. The expansion of biotechnology is leading to further reductions in the use of insecticide in cotton production systems. Consequently, the environmental impacts of cotton production are probably on the decline in all regions. However, over the long run, cotton prices are declining in real terms because production technology is rising faster than demand. Consequently, the greatest long run threat to the sustainability of cotton production is the economic pressure caused by rising input prices and competition with synthetic fibers.