[ Cotton Made in Africa. ]

Cotton Made in Africa is a project based on standards and criteria designed to help the socioeconomic development of smallholder cotton farmers in sub-Saharan Africa through trade and to improve the social, ecological, and economic living conditions of these agricultural communities.

What is it?
Cotton made in Africa (CmiA) is a strategic alliance of partners from trade and industry, the public sector and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) which contribute to the fight against poverty and environmental degradation in sub-Saharan Africa and help local cotton farmers and their families to raise their own standard of living. Criteria and standard documents can be found HERE.

CmiA income is directly reinvested to benefit smallholder farmers in the project countries. In addition to Mozambique, Malawi, Côte d’Ivoire, Zimbabwe, and Zambia, Ghana has recently joined as one of the CmiA project countries.

What does it apply to?

CmiA finances qualification programs that teach smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa about efficient and environmentally friendly cultivation methods in accordance with CmiA verification criteria. These include proper and efficient use of pesticides and fertilizers, measures to maintain soil fertility, and water management techniques which make it possible for CmiA to be produced exclusively without artificial irrigation.

These and other approaches ensure that CmiA cotton has a smaller ecological footprint than conventionally grown cotton. The measures also help farmers to increase yields and reduce inputs, thereby improving their income.

Key elements

Compliance to CmiA is regularly checked by means of verification by independent organisations. The verification system of Cotton made in Africa was developed together with the University of Wageningen, Netherlands, and with the auditing company PricewaterhouseCoopers, the cotton companies in the project countries, and with social, environmental and development policy institutions. Verification checks whether the smallholder farmers and the cotton companies comply with the guidelines of Cotton made in Africa.

CmiA exclusion criteria include:

*Slavery

*Human Trafficking.

*Child labour.

*Hazardous pesticides

CmiA’s exclusion criteria are structured on two levels. Firstly, it sets out exclusion criteria, to decide whether smallholder farmers and cotton companies can participate in the CmiA at all. These minimum requirements include, for example, a ban on slavery, human trafficking, and exploitative forms of child labour. The traditional participation of children in work on their parents’ farms is, however, permitted within the framework of the ILO Conventions and CmiA, provided that the children do not take on unsuitable or dangerous work. Such work is excluded from CmiA, under ILO Convention 138 and 182. There is also a ban on the use of hazardous pesticides (Rotterdam Protocols, Stockholm Conventions and WHO I a/b classified).

Secondly, smallholder farmers and cotton companies have to observe a series of sustainability indicators. These criteria do not all have to be met 100 per cent right from the start, however, the farmers and cotton companies have to prepare plans for improvements, and to demonstrate that they are working more and more in line with these indicators. Compliance with the indicators is assessed by a traffic light system, with the ratings “red”, “yellow” and “green”, whereby green stands for sustainable management. CmiA supports smallholder farmers and cotton companies and helps them to achieve continuous improvement. For example, the initiative organises training for smallholder farmers and promotes projects for the improvement of school education.

Verification of these sustainability indicators includes, among other things, a check on whether the smallholder farmers use appropriate farming methods to conserve soil and groundwater, and use pesticides in a moderate way and keep them in accordance with the requirements. These measures include, for example, the use of crop rotation, i.e. the farmers grow a sequence of different crops on their land in order to prevent leaching of the soil and to minimise the occurrence of pests. The sustainability indicators also include prompt payments by the cotton companies to the farmers and their support for community programmes. In ginning facilities, too, the primary concern is the rights of workers, including the many seasonal workers. Those rights include a proper contract of employment and maintenance of adequate health and safety practices, such as the wearing of dust masks.

The CmiA system differentiates between two possible forms of traceability in processing: Mass Balance (MB) and Hard Identity Preserve (HIP). Both alternatives are based on uninterrupted traceability from the farm to the ginning mill and then to the spinning mill, after which the two systems differ and the degree of transparency differs accordingly.

As a rule, the spinning mill represents the interface between the license holder and the licensor in connection with procurement. This is where mass balance control takes place, a process for assessing whether the amount of CmiA cotton purchased by the spinning mill and the amount of CmiA yarn produced is in agreement. The spinning mill reports its increases and decreases in stock to the Aid by Trade Foundation. The system functions according to the “green electricity” model and the balance (incoming CmiA cotton = outgoing CmiA yarn) is assessed at the spinning mill level.

Companies that partner with the Cotton made in Africa initiative and employ CmiA via the mass balance control system support the initiative’s work in the project areas with their volume-dependent licensing fees. They may communicate this fact.

The HIP standard was launched at the beginning of 2014. The requirements of the HIP standard include, among other things, the separate storage of cotton throughout all production stages of the value chain. If a trade partner requests uninterrupted traceability from the cotton bale to the final product, the HIP tracking system can be applied. The Aid by Trade Foundation provides the requirements that are needed for the system while the trade partner is responsible for implementation. Exact information regarding the origins of the raw materials can then be communicated.

Under the terms of the agreement, the two organisations invest resources generated through this joint effort into improving the livelihoods of a large number of African smallholder farmers. To achieve this the aim through new initiatives CmiA and BCI are working more closely together and developing common solutions, especially for issues such as child labour, integrated pest management, and in system optimisation between cotton supply and demand. It is hoped this will increase the sale of sustainable African cotton on the world market along with the economic and environmental sustainability of smallholder farmers.

Who owns it? Who manages it?

The project is maintained by the Aid by Trade Foundation which was founded in 2005 by Dr Michael Otto and sets standards for cotton production which deal with social, environmental and economic criteria.

Courtesy:
https://www.textilestandards.com/standards/42-cotton-made-in-africa?start=2

Blogger's Comment.

In India, we grow cotton of many varieties and we are the largest exporters of Cotton but we have never thought of branding our Cotton as - COTTON - MADE IN INDIA.