by Sebastian Paschal, Financial Times

Tanzania is set to become the first country in Sub-Saharan Africa to produce organic cotton. Apart from becoming the first African country to produce organic cotton, where no chemicals or artificial fertilizers are used, Tanzania is also set to lead the way in terms of educating stakeholders on this move, following a decision to establish a college from where knowledge on how to manage the crop will be provided.

President Benjamin Mkapa is expected to launch the project in the presence of worldwide cotton dealers and representatives of different countries sometime next month.

As the first harvest of Tanzanian organic cotton approaches, at least three multinational companies have placed purchasing orders. The price for organic cotton is reported to be three times that of normal cotton.

An expert from the United Kingdom, Nick Mason, is in the country to implement the project, which is to be known as Tanzania Organic Cotton.

To start with, said Mr. Mason, a group of cotton farmers has been registered in Handeni district, the site of a pilot.

Mason, who attended an Investment Promoting meeting for Tanga region last week, told this newspaper that Tanzania’s dream of producing organic cotton would be realized next month when the first product will be ready for market.

’’Handeni district will next month be the first place in Sub-Sahara Africa to produce organic cotton. This will be a historic event, not only for Tanzania, but also for the whole Sub-Saharan region ,’’
said Mr. Mason. Mr. Mason did not reveal the specific time for take-off of the planned Tanzania Organic Cotton College, but he confirmed that preparations for its construction have reached an advanced stage.

According to him, the plan is to include more farmers in the project and to start with registration of farmers not only in Handeni, but also in Morogoro and Dodoma regions.

It is expected that over 10,000 farmers will soon be registered from the three places, notably Dodoma, Morogoro and Handeni, and more will be registered in the near future, he said.

Earlier Mr. Mason had told the participants at the Tanga Investment Promotion meeting that President Benjamin Mkapa would launch the Tanzania Organic Cotton project on the 21st of this month.

He said over 60 traders and representatives from other countries would attend the opening session to mark the historical event.

According to him, experts from Europe will be coming to certify the cotton at the farm in order to recommend it accordingly.

’’Demand for organic cotton is much higher than the current production level, hence this is a great opportunity for Tanzania,’’ he said.

Organic cotton production and processing is a new exercise in developing countries.

It currently occupies a niche market, but reports say there are signs that it is moving into the mass market, with large companies such as Coop in Switzerland, and Nike and Levi Strauss in the USA, taking an interest.

The Coop, for example, which began selling organic fabrics in 1993, sold one million organic items in 1997.

The niche market provides the opportunity for learning through action and building capacity.

The number of projects and experiments has continued to expand in the 1990s in all continents in both large-scale production systems (Australia and the USA) and small-scale (Egypt, India, Brazil, Peru).

In less than 10 years, organic cotton production has spread to more than 15 countries.

However, it still remains a tiny fraction of global cotton production. In 1995, when production was over 12000 tonnes, it still represented only 0.06 per cent of total global cotton production.

The idea to switch from conventional to organic cotton production follows has been spurred by environmental and health concerns.

Throughout the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America, cotton is a major cash crop, and cotton production and processing is an important source of income at household level for many millions of small farmers as well as being a source of foreign exchange at national level.

In many countries therefore, strenuous efforts have been made to increase production, mainly by increasing yields through the intensive use of chemical inputs, irrigation and the use of higher-yielding varieties.

Improvements in cotton fibre output have generally been regarded as beneficial by those involved, including the farmers, but they have also involved costs, both environmental and social, which have not been reflected in cotton pricing and which have seriously affected people’s livelihoods, health and environment.

Indeed, despite its ’natural’ image, cotton production has become increasingly associated with severe negative environmental impacts which include reduced soil fertility, salinization, a loss of biodiversity, water pollution, adverse changes in water balance, and pesticide-related problems including resistance.

Social costs include, for example, severe health problems related to the heavy use of acutely toxic pesticides especially in countries where regulatory systems are weak or unenforceable and safe use almost impossible.

Even economically, farmers are not necessarily better off due to high production costs, and in some situations they are unable to select alternative crops or production systems.

Environmental and health costs also arise at other stages in the cotton chain. Cotton processing is a very resource-consuming, polluting and unhealthy industry.

Large amounts of water, energy and chemicals are used at the different processing stages.

Inputs required for processing usually find their way into the local waste water systems, resulting in highly contaminated effluents.

Most effluents from cotton processing arise in the finishing stage and are characterized by their highly polluting load, high solid content and high temperature.

In Sweden, for instance, every kilogram of textiles manufactured uses almost half a kilogram of chemicals, most of which end up in waste-water. Chemicals can also remain in the final product, which can cause health problems.