Life Cycle Assessment of Organic, BCI and Conventional Cotton: A Comparative Study of Cotton Cultivation Practices in India

Abstract

Cotton, the most important cash crop of India plays a dominant role in its agrarian and industrial economy. In India, the area under cotton cultivation is the highest in the world and industry provides livelihood to over seven million people. However, cotton productivity in India is low and farmers rely on heavy dosage of fertilizers and insecticides/pesticides to control insects, pests, weeds and growth regulators. Organic cotton farming is the process of growing cotton without the use of synthetic pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), is a concept to grow cotton with judicious use of water, chemical fertilizers and pesticides, to reduce the environmental footprint of cotton farming. The objective of the study was to quantify the environmental benefits associated with the production of organic seed cotton and BCI seed cotton compared to the conventional production of seed cotton, using Life Cycle Assessment approach. The aim was also to identify hotspots across the cultivation process. The study was based on primary data collected from farming sites managed by Arvind Group under contract farming model for BCI cotton and organic cotton cultivation in the state of Maharashtra, India. When compared with the conventional cotton system, the organic and BCI cotton show considerable advantage for several impacts categories.