India Sustainable Cotton Better Cotton Initiative (BCI)

Name of the Donor: WORLDWIDE FUND-INDIA

Grants received Rs.72,28,848/- and Spent Rs.74,80,807/-

MARI ensured sustainable agricultural production by promoting appropriate agricultural practices, by establishing farmers’ cooperatives and required linkages. The uniqueness is continuous engagement in finding appropriate solutions to farming challenges. WWF supported Better Cotton Initiatives project is one such project.

Objectives:

By 2021, at least 15,235 farmers to be empowered to produce better cotton
By end of 2021, to strengthen the Farmers’ Co-operative Societies and Farmer Producer Companies to involve actively in project planning, monitoring and implementation
To systematically document the project learning’s and challenges and report to WWF/BCI

Quantitative Indicators: 2019 – 2020

No of villages covered: 175

No of farmers participating in the project: 15,235

Volume of Better Cotton certified produced in MT: 7,707

Total farm area certified by BCI in Hectares: 12,321

Project Progress 2019-20: Activity with Achievements

IPM (Pest Management)

PU Societies supplied 8,842 Pheromone Traps and 8,312 Yellow Sticky Plates
6,935 farmers adopted No pesticide spray in first 60 days and 6,075 farmers installed bird perches.
6,891 farmers from 115 villages participated in Rallies on storage, safe disposal, avoiding banned pesticides ; 45 rallies conducted in 45 hot spot villages to eradicate use of Monocrotophos, Triazophos and Carbondazim
Application of botanical extracts and Neem oil adopted by 6,068 farmers

Soil Health Management

Soil testing done in 20% of the 440 LG’s 3,599 individual Grid-based tests were done on site by project staff/ 200 by lab
Soil test based fertilizer application taken up by all 3,599 farmers
Refugee/border/inter-crop done by 7,009 farmers adopted
Compost through waste Decomposer adopted by 476 farmers

Biodiversity

Bio-diversity mapping (Off -Farm mapping ) was done in 175 project villages
Farm Mapping Medal approach was done in 140 villages
Bund plantation was take up and 12,300 plants were planted through Haritha haram

Water stewardship

Water resources mapping completed PRA in 175 villages identified surface and ground water resources and recorded water levels
Tank silt application was taken up with the government program MISSION KAKATIYA wherein 3,169 farmers benefitted
Water conservation in irrigation; promoted minimum tillage; alternative furrow irrigation by 8,654 farmers
7,558 farmers were involved in safe disposal of pesticide and 6,867 farmers were involved in cleaning sites.
212 farm ponds constructed through NREGS

Decent Work

Identified 2,824 daily workers, 262 permanent workers and 3,644 shared labourers in all 175 villages
2,824 landless labor, 695 single women, 4,626 women workers identified and listed
Child labour policy was adopted by all the PU societies. Child Labour Protection Committees formed and their effective functioning was ensured in all the project villages
Non discrimination policy was adopted by societies and as many as 154 village level awareness programmes were conducted
147 Awareness Programmes on negative impact of pesticides on women, pregnant and lactating Women workers and ANMs was conducted.
142 school meetings were conducted on preventing children from hazardous work
175 meetings conducted on the various government schemes to Support disadvantage groups by facilitating the women and farmers of disadvantage groups. Farmers received NREGS Job Cards (205), Kalyan Laxmi (33 @ Rs. 1,00,116/-), Charging sprayers 62 etc

Fibre Quality

6,000 Cotton bags sold through Cooperative Society. 440 bags for lead farmers supplied through project

Trials and results

Mobile Soil Testing Kits: Soil testing at Farm level was found very useful with its quick results & Motivation to farmers to
Low cost PPE: Trial and error in preparing more adaptable, low-cost PPE
Safe disposal of pesticide containers: Local vendors identified for collection of pesticide bottles – Discussions held with local pesticide dealers for collection of containers
Regular performance / review of Staff: Written tests/ quiz in monthly reviews. PU Managers prepare materials, Questionnaires, presentations (PU Manager-INTL04 got second best in Water Quiz (southern) conducted by BCI