Organic Cotton

Why organic cotton?

Conventional cotton (“regular” cotton) as used in the world today, is the second-most pesticide-laden crop!  [The first is conventional coffee.  The third is tobacco.]  When we look around us at everything that's made from and uses conventional cotton, including our own clothing, we are looking at items whose production is causing huge damage to our environment.  For more information on this problem, see  http://www.maggiesorganics.com/theenvironment.php

Nicaragua’s cotton production history

Cotton, historically one of Nicaragua’s main exports, has almost disappeared from agricultural production in the country.  Once farmed in giant tracts of land, the uninterrupted expanse of cotton made the crop vulnerable to infestations of boll weevil.  This lead to increased production costs with more and more pesticides, and made it risky to plant cotton, all of which contributed to the decline of cotton in Nicaragua.  The production of organic cotton, however, focuses on cultivating small parcels of land, regular crop rotation and close monitoring by hand during the cultivation process; all of which make organic cotton less susceptible to many of the difficulties found in conventional cotton production.  In addition, the international market for organic cotton is experiencing unprecedented growth: in 2007, demand exceeded supply, and prices increased by more than fifty percent.		 organic cotton boll

The CDCA’s Organic Cotton project

For all of these reasons, the CDCA is promoting an integrated project to reintroduce organic cotton production in Nicaragua and provide a market to purchase this raw cotton. Small organic farmers working with the agricultural cooperative (COPROEXNIC) of the CDCA are beginning to to incorporate organic cotton into their current crop rotations, and during the 2007-2008 growing season harvested 180,000 lbs. of organic cotton!  .		 organic cotton field
Our agronomist provides training and oversite.
Agronomist Raul training Genesis
 assembling organic cotton gin and baler
We are currently working to set up a worker-owned ginning operation to gin and bale the organic cotton.The gin has been installed next to the spinning plant to process the organic cotton grown by COPROEXNIC farmers.

We are also working with a spinning cooperative “Genesis", that will purchase the organic cotton and spin it into organic yarn.  The cooperative is developing on two fronts:  in how to build and become a functioning cooperative, and in the actual construction of the spinning plant.
Genesis unloading container of organic cotton Genesis unloading organic cotton Genesis setting first building columns Genesis setting first building columns.


One market for the yarn is the Fair Trade Zone women’s sewing cooperative that produces organic cotton clothing for export and is the first worker-owned free trade zone in the world.

The organic cotton project is working to develop a production chain to produce clothing garments that are organic and fair trade certified from crop all the way to the consumer!

Return to Sustainable Agriculture
Return to Genesis Spinning Cooperative
Return to Main Page