Organic cotton farming, is it that easy?
May 9th 2008adminOrganic Cotton (Raw)
Well it has been some time since my latest blog post about Indian organic cotton and the problems. I was busy all week and now i have some time to tell a little more about the organic cotton farming.
First off all, the fields or the seeds are not different for organic cotton than the conventional cotton. The main difference is the used & non-used chemicals. While farming cotton seed, you have to use a lot of water (which is very bad considering the global warming issues) and you have to use several pesticides. Those pesticides are used mostly for keeping the bugs away from the cotton and crop. And pesticides are accepted worldwide to be highly carcinogenic (canser-causing).
However water takes those pesticides deep into the soil and even poisons the soil itself. Thus, in order to start organic farming, you will need to stop using those pesticides. And after 3 years your soil will refresh and certification bodies will approve that your crop is organic. That’s the main reason why it is so hard to enter the organic farming market. Nobody wants to wait 3 years!
Besides that, if you don’t use the pesticides, bugs will be a big problem for your crop. I know several farmers that lost all years crop because of several bugs. It is really hard to fight with them without using the forbidden pesticides.
In that direction, nature & weather helps a lot to some countries. The wind for example helps a lot to protect the cotton from the bugs. You will definately want your fields to be on a windy place but this is usually a very rare situation. I know that Uzbekistan farmers lost a lot of crop just because of the very poor winds. Indian and Eastern Turkish fields are also taking low wind and nature/weather is not helping them a lot. This is the main reason for the low staple fibers from that region.
Texas, Peru and Western Turkey have some serious advantages because of the wind and weather all season. This also brings the whiter and longer fibres along with the much better quality, handfeel and dyeing performance.
Offcourse there are several other factors effecting the quality and pricing but this will be another post soon.
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