Better Cotton Points to India as Example of Pesticide Progress

Claire Wilson
·3 min read

Better Cotton has reinvigorated its position on eliminating Highly Hazardous Pesticides (HHPs) in advance of the International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM) taking place in Bonn, Germany this week.

The world’s largest cotton sustainability initiative, Better Cotton and the members of the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Coalition have issued a position paper urging a broad phase-out of the agrochemicals known for jeopardizing the health and safety of farm workers who are often unaware of the dangers or unable to access healthier alternatives.

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With IPM Coalition members, including Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance, the Sustainable Agriculture Alliance (SAN), and the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), Better Cotton has issued a series of recommendations for the elimination of harmful pesticides. They include committing to a global phase-out of the substances according to a coordinated plan with deadlines; creating a policy and supplying funding to help producers transition from hazardous pesticides to tested practices like agroecology and IPM; investing in the development of safer, affordable and accessible alternatives to HHPs; promote awareness and provide training in IPM practices to farmers worldwide; stop subsidies for highly hazardous pesticides; and strengthen regulations and enforcement governing these substances to help in the gradual elimination of the toxic chemicals from farming.

Highly hazardous pesticides have historically been used to fight pests in crops such as cotton. Better Cotton has succeeded in significantly reducing their use, particularly in India where use was cut to 10 percent from 64 percent between the 2014-15 and 2021-22 seasons. Use of Monocrotophos, designated as highly toxic by the World Health Organization, was also cut dramatically, to 2 percent from 41 percent, also in India.

IPM’s approach has helped more than seven million farmers working 13 million hectares of land to adopt more sustainable practices across all Coalition crops. Those include cocoa, coffee, palm oil and tea in addition to cotton. That IPM approach, according to Better Cotton’s Principles and Criteria (P&C), entails growing healthy crops, preventing the build-up of pest populations, fostering biodiversity, instituting field observation and managing resistance. Better Cotton offers multiple training programs in all countries to help farmers adopt the IPM approach and do their part to aid in the global elimination of HHPs.

The IPM Coalition has also said it commends the United Nations Strategic Approach for International Chemicals Management (SAIM) for initiating the fifth session of the International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM5), which will provide a platform to address chemical management in line with the IPM’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Better Cotton’s CEO, Alan McClay, noted the importance of a concerted effort in the reduction of these toxic substances. “Only a global response to the use of highly hazardous pesticides in agricultural supply chains will ensure that farmers and their land are protected from harmful impacts of such formulations,” he said. “The IPM Coalition exists to bang the drum on this important issue and we hope authorities will join us in driving change.”

The IPM Coalition is a collective of 11 members of the U.K.-based International Social and Environmental Accreditation and Labelling Alliance (ISEAL), whose goal it is to eliminate toxic pesticides in favor of more sustainable alternatives. In addition to Better Cotton, Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance, the Sustainable Agriculture Alliance (SAN), and the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), other members include the Union for Ethical Biotrade (UEBT), the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RAB), Global Coffee Platform (GCP), Bonsucro, the GEO Foundation which supports sustainable golf and UTZ, now part of the Rainforest Alliance.

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