Organic Cotton Stakeholder Workshop India , 2005
“Facilitating organic cotton farming for rural development”
Organizers: Research Institute for Organic Agriculture (FiBL), Switzerland. www.fibl.org
IInternational Competence Centre for Organic Agriculture (ICCOA), Bangalore. www.iccoa.org
The event is part of a research project funded by Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
Target Group:
- Organic cotton projects in India (farmer groups, NGOs, companies)
- Leaders of farmer groups involved in organic cotton farming
- Development cooperation agencies, NGOs
- Cotton processing and trade industry
- Agricultural departments and extension offices, research institutes
- Policy makers, journalists (agriculture) etc.
Workshop objectives:
- Sharing the research results and extension tools emerging from the Organic Cotton Research Project (see background information below).
- Exchange of experience among the stakeholders related to implementing organic cotton projects.
- Discussion of topics relevant for scaling up (training and extension, marketing of rotation crops etc.).
- Planning of joint future steps to foster the development of the organic cotton sector in India.
Background information:
There are numerous initiatives on organic cotton farming in India and other countries in the South. In order to assess the impact of conversion to organic farming on cotton based smallholder farms, and to support organic farming initiatives, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Switzerland , mandated the Research Institute for Organic Agriculture (FiBL) to implement a 3-year organic cotton research project (see www.organiccotton.fibl.org). The research project is largely based on the experience of Maikaal bioRe in Madhya Pradesh , an important pioneer in organic cotton farming in India , but also draws from other cotton projects in India and Africa . In the first stakeholder meeting in 2003, the organizers presented the project concept and invited feedback to the proposed activities. During the second meeting in 2004, the participants got an insight into the ongoing work and discussed activities that could be taken up on their side. In this final stakeholder meeting organized in collaboration with ICCOA we will share and discuss the research findings and their implications with the stakeholders. Further we will present the range of extension tools developed within the project. The meeting shall also be a platform to explore future steps to be taken in order to effectively support the organic cotton community in India .
Preliminary Agenda
Topics |
Welcome ( Dr. Tej Pratap, Director ICCOA)
Introduction to the objectives and programme ( Frank Eyhorn, FiBL) |
Brief introduction of the participants/projects |
Overview on the Maikaal bioRe project ( Rajeev Baruah, Managing Director, Maikaal bioRe ( India) Ltd. |
Part I: Results from the Organic Cotton Research Project
Research results
- Impact of organic cotton production on farmers' livelihoods
- Technology development in organic cotton
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Extension and dissemination
- Presentation of extension tools
- Setting up organic cotton projects
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Part II: Challenges in and options for scaling-up organic cotton farming
Presentations by selected projects / initiatives. Among others, Organic Exchange will share their ideas to support organic cotton farming in India. |
Panel discussion: Strategies for scaling-up organic cotton farming in India |
Conclusions, outlook |
Closing |
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