New Regional Life Cycle Assessment Touts Organic Cotton Farming in India
The Organic Cotton Accelerator (OCA) has published a new life cycle assessment study outlining the environmental benefits of organic cotton farming in India.
Conducted by climate consultancy South Pole, the regional study focused on five Indian states—Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Gujarat and Telangana—assessing third-party-validated data from more than 18,000 farmers across three growing seasons (2020-2023). The farmers also represented three different irrigation styles: rain-fed, heavily irrigated and hybrid.
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The study's results revealed that organic cotton farming consistently had a lower environmental footprint across several categories, including climate change, water usage, acidification and eutrophication.
On-field emissions were the primary drivers of climate change, acidification and eutrophication. Both mineral and organic fertilizers also played a major role in environmental impact. And unsurprisingly, rain-fed irrigation systems had the lowest impacts on water usage.
Through the study, OCA aims to establish a credible baseline cradle-to-ginning-gate assessment, enabling third-party-verified environmental claims and facilitating Scope 3 greenhouse gas reporting. The study also will help OCA to improve its internal data collection and management for future life cycle assessments and data monitoring.
'OCA's first regional life cycle assessment not only provides unique local insights into the environmental benefits of organic cotton for our sector, it also helps us identify how to deepen the impact of our work and improve OCA's own data systems,' said Bart Vollaard, executive director of OCA. '[It allows us to] deliver increasingly accurate life cycle assessments in the future, showcasing the positive impact delivered by the fantastic work of the farmers in our program.'
OCA works with more than 100,000 farmers in India, supporting their efforts to grow organic cotton. The regionalized data from this study provides a clearer picture of local farming practices, resource use and climate conditions to enable more precise impact modeling. This farm-level data collection integrates environmental, social and economic factors, tracking everything from biodiversity and soil health to net income and community development.
'Comprehensive, regionally relevant and reliable data sets are crucial for brands and retailers in the textile sector to have full visibility of the environmental impacts of their products and take meaningful action on climate and beyond,' said Caroline Peyer, life cycle assessment lead, environmental impact accounting, South Pole. 'The large sample size combined with third-party verification enhances the robustness and reliability of the results—a step forward in empowering businesses to design robust sourcing strategies.'
The study suggests a combination of targeted strategies to reduce the environmental impact of cotton production, starting with adoption of organic production. OCA also said refining secondary data for irrigation through collaboration with local agencies will help improve water footprint estimates. And regular updates to the life cycle assessment will be essential for tracking progress and measuring the impact of interventions over time, ensuring those strategies remain relevant and informed by the most recent data.
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