Brazil is amongst the top producers worldwide for a range of agricultural commodities, including soy and cotton. Probably less known is the fact that both crops are grown on the same fields in one season, an agricultural technique known as “safrinha”. This technique is applied in the northern and western regions of the state of Mato Grosso, where rainfall is sufficiently high to boost productivity. The season starts with planting soy and after harvest, the time is right to plant cotton. The seeds and planting cycles for soy and cotton are carefully optimis ed to ensure high productivity at local environmental conditions to allow such a double crop system within one harvesting season. The crop rotation has a positive effect on the long-term fertility of the soil and the widespread use of rainfall (green water) instead of artificial irrigation (blue water) results in limited soil salinisation.
Brazilian farmers optimize agriculture for productivity and soil fertility.
Brazil, as a leader in agro-technology, has sustainability and traceability standards in place to ensure that it meets the regulations to produce the food that feeds the world. This goes all the way to the chicken nuggets that we buy as end consumers. As cotton is grown in the same fields as the soy that feeds the poultry, one can benefit from the existing monitoring systems and processes in place.
Our food and clothes grow in the same field.
For cotton, the ecological and social criteria are specified in the Responsible Brazilian Cotton (ABR) standard. Thanks to this standard, Brazil is authorised to sell its cotton under the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), the world’s leading initiative for better cotton.
Today, Swiss-based companies can offer cotton that is traceable back to the gin, where the lint is separated from the cotton seed.
Brazil is the world’s largest Better Cotton producing country.
It is important to maintain regular contact with Brazilian suppliers to discuss how traceability can be moved to the next level, thereby ensuring better transparency to the end consumer about where the products come from. Ideally, the system should allow tracing cotton down to the field where it grows and from there to the retailer who sells the product to the end consumer (from field to shirt). There are still some hurdles, but the current efforts of Brazilian suppliers are very promising.
