Cotton is the world’s most popular natural fibre, produced by over 24 million cotton growers in 75 countries. Whilst cotton farmers and workers are indispensable to the global fashion industry, they are largely excluded from conversations and stories around sustainability. To understand and transform the fashion and textile industry, we need their perspectives, and we need to grapple with the social and ecological issues around cotton.
Cotton at the Source is a project led by Cotton Diaries and A Growing Culture, in collaboration with local journalists, storytellers, photographers and cotton farmer communities. Together, they have produced Stories from the Ground, a booklet featuring farmers who are working to change the face of cotton farming, implementing novel solutions to produce sustainable or organic cotton and transforming their communities for the better in the process.
Alougba, president of a cooperative of organic producers in Lagbo village, Benin. Credit: Gbèmèho Elisé Fanou
For years, PAN UK and OBEPAB (Organisation Béninoise pour la Promotion de l’Agriculture Biologique) have been working with smallholder cotton farmers in an area of Benin where chemically-intensive ‘conventional’ cotton farming reigns. Organic is not new. Successful organic techniques have their roots in cultural traditions and heritage. To ensure that this passage of knowledge is not lost, OBEPAB organises training schools, where young and veteran farmers share their best practices and experiences.
Featured in the booklet are stories from some of the thousands of farmers in the area that have now converted to growing organic cotton, protecting the health of their families and the environment and consuming food crops grown in fields alongside, knowing that they have not been contaminated with pesticides intended for the cotton crop.
Farmers now work in self-governing cooperatives with mutual financial assistance. They are earning additional income which is invested back into the community and they have improved food security for their families.
Be inspired by this wonderful work, alongside others, in the Stories from the Ground booklet or find out more about our work in cotton here.
