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Success of program
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Fair Trade Cotton Becomes Social Harvest
Photo: Croissance Economiqu
Hand weeding of fair trade cotton in
Medina Yoro foula (Kolda, Senegal).
In Senegal, farmers of
fair trade cotton earn an
extra $2.7 million over the
minimum price paid for
cotton.
It sounds like a fairy tale: a farmer sows a seed gently in the earth, and
then watches it grow into a classroom, mills, school supplies, and cereal
banks. But more than a rural fable, this has been the social harvest for
communities in southern Senegal growing fair trade cotton during the past
five years.
Faced with the rising cost of growing conventional cotton, and evershrinking
profits, Senegal’s national cotton trade association, Society of
Development and Textile Fibers (SODEFITEX), looked to fair-trade cotton
starting in 2003 for some relief. Five years, almost 11,000 hectares of fair
trade cotton and more than 15,000 certified producers later, SODEFITEX
and USAID are working to strengthen and expand Senegal’s fair trade
cotton producer network.
USAID facilitated several activities related to cotton through SODEFITEX
including training promoters how to sell the product, and working with
producers—175 of which are women who harvest seed cotton—on how
to fi ght contamination. USAID also provided training manuals which
addressed issues of organic and fair trade crop systems.
To earn the fair trade cotton label, producers agree to standards that
ensure an environmentally-friendly product, including avoiding genetically modified seeds; limiting the use of pesticides; enriching the soil; practicing
crop rotation and hand picking; and reducing the use of chemicals.
Producers also agree to invest a percentage of cotton proceeds back into
the community. In return, fair trade cotton producers get better prices. In
Senegal, they earned 42% more than their conventional cotton colleagues,
or about $100 more per hectare, in 2007. A third of these proceeds are
then invested back into the community.
Since 2003, SODEFITEX has reported almost $43,000 in fair-trade funded
community investments, including cereal banks that stockpile the previous
year’s harvest to help feed communities during the lean seasons, and new
classrooms to alleviate some of the overcrowding in the schools.
Magnang Niang, a manager with SODEFITEX, says fair trade returns
are not only bricks and mortar improvements. “The committee structure,
oversight and monitoring required for fair trade certification and cotton
cultivation improves social cohesion, reinforces leadership capacity,
improves transparency [of cotton operations], and accords a prominent
management role to women,” he said.
And of course, there are the financial rewards. In Senegal, revenue for
2008’s fair trade cotton harvest earned farmers an extra $2.7 million
dollars over the minimum price paid for cotton, of which $1 million goes to
their communities—a nice modern twist to the classic fairy tale ending.
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