Organic Cotton Market Report 2022, a report of the Textile Exchange, a non-profit organisation that claims to drive a positive action on climate change, is facing heat as industry experts have raised doubts on its findings.
It has also created controversy on India’s organic cotton cultivation.
The report has estimated global organic cotton harvest at 342,265 tonnes produced from 6,21,691 hectares of certified organic land in 2020-21. Organic cotton makes up 1.4 per cent of the total cotton production and its production increased by 37 per cent from 2019-20.
It also said it has low confidence in the data from five countries – India, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkey and Uganda, who together accounted for 76 per cent of the certified organic total in 2020-21. Besides, it says it has a confidence of two out of three on the data from Turkey.
Seeking withdrawal of the report, Terry Townsend, former executive director of the International Cotton Advisory Council (ICAC), said that among the reasons to be sceptical about the report is that yields calculated from reported certified area and production are too high to be true.
He said, “Almost by definition, yields in organic agriculture are lower than yields achieved by conventional farmers, and the organic cotton yields reported for 2020-21 in and of themselves raise suspicion of fraud.”
One reason for Textile Exchange eyeing the data from India with suspicion is that the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) -India’s nodal agency for organic farming – has penalised at least four certifying agencies for irregularities committed in the certification process.
The agencies were found violating all norms with regard to organic cotton certification and, ironically, growers were unaware that they were part of an organic farming group.
These growers did not follow any norms for organic farming and applied agrochemicals to their crop. The certifying agencies did not have an internal control system, which required an office in the place where the grower group grows the organic produce.
The report also said organic yields in eight countries, accounting for 3,07,214 tonnes of 2020-21 production (90 per cent of the world’s total), were equal to or higher than overall yields in each country, he said.
With regard to Turkey, Textile Exchange said organic cotton production increased three-fold, the country’s Agriculture Ministry has said it dropped four-fold!
