Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) has come up with its Growth and Innovation Fund (GIF), the company’s new global investment vehicle, which will lend a helping hand to the Better Cotton projects in cotton-growing regions across the globe. BCI’s ‘Growth and Innovation Fund’ has been functional since January 1 this year.
The Growth and Innovation Fund’s scale will aid BCI in enhancing its target of reaching 5 million farmers and accounting for 30 per cent of global cotton production by 2020. The Fund is managed by BCI’s strategic partner IDH, the Sustainable Trade Initiative that also ran the very successful Better Cotton Fast Track Programme (BCFTP) from 2010 to 2015 and is run in collaboration with BCI’s partners and members from the worlds of business, civil society and government. The Fund is managed by BCI’s strategic partner IDH, the Sustainable Trade Initiative, which also organised Better Cotton Fast Track Programme (BCFTP) from 2010 to 2015.
The joint investments in the programme have helped BCI in many ways. It has assisted in dealing with the crucial sustainability issues in cotton farming that includes use of the pesticide and water efficiency and also aided in fighting problems of unfavourable working conditions, child labour, gender issues and unfair pay. BCI aims to mainstream Better Cotton by mobilising public and private funds and growing cotton by methods that are environmentally viable and proves to be a boon to the farming communities.
Some of the major private partners in the Fund features world’s largest cotton buyers like Adidas, H&M, IKEA, Nike, Levi Strauss & Co. and M&S. These companies have agreed to pay a volume-based fee for the use of Better Cotton. Moreover, the retailers and brands using Better Cotton in their supply chains contribute to the funding of farmer’s capacity building.
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The money, thus, put in by GIF intends to tutor the cotton producers to optimise inputs, use chemicals in a safer manner, increase yields and generate higher profits. It works on continuous improvement model, wherein the farmers need to come up with plans that will aim at improving cotton growing practices.
The GIF, and its predecessor the BCFTP, also offers a five-year track record of effective large-scale fund management, and the result collected every year exhibits positive changes in the field, which is environmentally beneficial and also socio-economic growth for the farmers and their families.
