An average consumer does not realize how often they come across cotton during the day, right from the bedsheets, their towels, their clothing, and even currency notes. Cotton being a traditional crop, it has a lot of history with it. It is one of the colonial crops as well. China and India are one of the largest producers of cotton, but it is grown in the US, Australia, in many countries and Africa as well and Central Asia like Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan as well.There isn't an accurate number but it is an estimate that about 70 % of world's cotton is actually grown by smallholder farmers, which means farmers who have an average land of two or three hectares, or you could compare it to two or three football fields. We have plantations in some countries where everything is mechanized so that's a totally different scenario. For example in the US, Australia or other developed countries.
If you're talking about the smallholder farmers so you can yourself visualise if that farmer owns just two football fields of farming and their whole family needs to depend on that one crop. Usually one crop for the income, so it isn't enough for the family to live on it and as I mentioned there is a cycle of poverty in terms of money lending and the interest that they have to pay. So there's very little left for them in order to be able to live on that income.
So a farmer in Africa who has just two hectares of land has to sell his cotton at the same price as a big farmer in the US who has acres and acres of land and is being subsidised by the government so this is one of the biggest factors that perpetuates poverty. It's not not just poverty there are other factors that come in for example the amount of chemicals that they need to use for their farming. Not only does it reduce the quality of the soil but it also reduces the quality of their own health , thier children and the animal or the cattle that they might have, these days the seed that they need to buy.
So firstly not only are they dependent on external parties to buy their seed but they also have to pay a lot of money in order to be able to get access to water , and of course now climate change is also affecting farming everywhere and in some cases the farmers might not even be aware about climate change and they're still leaving it as you know this is the wrath of nature maybe. So you know that education needs to be there, because of poverty sometimes they need to use include the children in the farming or cotton picking, which means the future generation also would still be trapped in poverty unless the kids go to school. Fairtrade is a grassroots movement where the wider goal of making trade fair and there are two main tools that Fairtrade uses to support the farmers. The first is the Fairtrade minimum price. It is a safety net, and if the market crashes then at least the farmers are able to recover the cost of of production or as I mentioned that there are subsidies in other countries which brings down the cost of world prices of cotton. So this this helps them to recover their prices, it is just a safety net. But on top of it the farmers get a small amount which is called a fair trade premium.
This amount goes to the co-operative of farmers and they themselves democratically decide how they want to use this money. So it is an empowering model. It's no one sitting, and it's not the brand or us sitting in London or New York telling them how to use their money because they know the reality the most, and they often decide to use it in investing in education or improving their farming etc. So it is really an empowering model for the farmers. Certification is an assurance for an average consumer that someone has checked that everything is OK, and as we know that the trust that consumers have in businesses has really been been going down.
So it just brings that added value rather than someone's themselves saying we are good when a third party confirms that or verifies the good work that they are doing. I think that is the value it brings for the consumer if they recognise and trust a mark like Fairtrade. It shows them that some thing right has taken place in the supply chain or the farmers have received a fair price for their product. Certification is a big part of what Fairtrade does but it is not limited to certification. There is a lot of work that we do on campaigning advocacy, bringing producers together, forming a network, giving them a platform, and Fairtrade is actually represented 50 % by producers. So it is the voice of producers, so that it is not a paternalistic approach to development. It is very inclusive and participatory in terms of what they want and we use that further to influence governments and consumers, educating consumers businesses and governments to make trade fair. Governments have a very crucial role to play both in the north as well as in the south to create an enabling environment for a fairer term, for fairer terms of trade for the farmers. The governments in the developing countries also need to invest in infrastructure, like hospitals, schools and even value addition in those in those countries. So that these farmers can have a decent life. And. Help them to come out of poverty. the first thing that the companies need to do, is to acknowledge that farmers are part of the supply chain too so they are the invisible part of the supply chain. And then the second step is to have more transparency, to know where their stuff is coming from, and of course then there is fair trade. They can use Fairtrade as a tool to ensure that there is no child labour, that farmers are getting a fairer price, and that the money is actually reaching the farmers so the additional amount that the consumers are paying is actually reaching the farmers because of the insurance model that we have. Consumers have a really strong voice. if they can signal and give strong messages to the brands and to the government that they care, and that the farmers should also get a fair price, there is no reason why the industry will not will not change, because the brands are always looking towards the consumers and what they ask for. It is about fairness that it should be fair for everyone in the supply chain, including the invisible farmers who grow the cotton that is in your clothes ,that should be fair for the businesses, and it should be fair for the consumers.
No comments:
Post a Comment