A carbon positive farming program that has been established in Australia is now progressing into one of the world’s largest cotton growing nations – India.
In Australia, the Statham family has been spearheading climate positive agriculture under a program called Good Earth Cotton, backed by site specific data, reporting and traceability.
The Australian developed program elevates the role of the grower, ensuring full participation in the future of the global textile industry.
The Delight Group in India is taking the lead in conducting the research and development necessary to adopt the Good Earth Cotton program in India.
The Group is working toward a climate positive outcome that is backed by audited site-specific data and traceability technology FibreTrace.
It is forecasted that in 2023, across participating Australian and Indian farms, over 200,000 bales of Good Earth Cotton will be produced, enough to create an estimated 160 million garments.
1977 Indian cotton farms, spanning 3,689 hectares of land, commenced the journey of converting to Good Earth Cotton.
The farmers have commenced this cropping season (MY 2021/2022) by digital mapping have soil sampling, data collection and GPS tagging to build a base analysis from which the Good Earth Cotton program and principles will be reviewed and adapted to bring climate positive improvements to a smallholder farming system and Indian climatic conditions.
This program represents a first of its kind in India, where primary and site specific scientific data is captured at scale and verified across participating growers.
Following this season, soil sampling and data collection will continue next year and each year thereafter to review the progress toward regenerative cotton and climate positivity.
It is anticipated that it will take three years (cropping seasons) for these growers to fully adopt the Good Earth Cotton program.
Delight Group is one of India’s leading organic agricultural cultivators and traders - working from farm, to gin, through to spinning in the cotton sector.
CEO Abhishek Doshi praised the Australian program for its impact on the industry.
“Delight Group has been built on the values of respect for people and planet, when we learnt about the progress being made by Danielle and David Statham on the Good Earth Cotton program in Australia and realised a strong sense of shared values, we were eager to lead the research and development necessary in India to adapt practice change and result not only in climate positive outcomes, but also provide Indian farmers an opportunity to enhance their yield and livelihoods - this program ensures growers are full participants and beneficiaries of a better cotton industry and healthier planet."
Participating Good Earth Cotton farmers will report primary impact data on an annual basis.
Danielle Statham said the program has been developed through a decade of research.
"We have spent over 10 years on our properties in Australia investing in agronomy, carbon science, and ongoing research and development to deliver the Good Earth Cotton program - we are so grateful to have had the opportunity to connect with Abhishek and the Delight Group team and share a common ground on wanting to improve the climate positive and transparent outcomes of the global cotton industry - being able to share our research, development, knowledge, skill and practices across the global is phenomenal."
Good Earth Cotton is backed by FibreTrace, a transparency technology that connects physical markers with digital technology, providing brands and suppliers vision of their supply chain at every step.
Delight Group will not only use FibreTrace to verify and trace the Good Earth Cotton production in India when ready, but as of late 2022 will be introducing FibreTrace across certified Indian Organic cotton (organic premium, IC2 and NPOp).