The report also explained the Covid-19 pandemic highlights the importance of collaboration throughout the organic cotton supply chain to protect farmer livelihoods.

Keith Tyrell, chair, OCA Board of Trustees pointed out organic cotton farmers will continue to face difficulties. He said: “Farmers will likely face challenges for many months to come but we have proven that we are agile and can adapt to new ways of working to safeguard their livelihoods and deliver against our mission, even under difficult circumstances.”

The report lists the key operational challenges triggered by Covid-19 as well as how the OCA, which is a multi-stakeholder global organisation for organic cotton, is overcoming them, including:

Challenge: Lower demand for cotton with a drop in retail sector sales
leading to a sharp decline in demand for cotton.

Solution: The OCA Farm Programme offers a secure market and premium price for organic farmers.

Challenge: Higher need for financial support due to delayed payments to
garment vendors and liquidity issues in the supply chain.

Solution: To support the farm groups in preparing for the new cotton season with a seed pre-finance match-fund in partnership with the Laudes Foundation.

Challenge: Need for digital adaptation due to travel restrictions and lockdown
protocols.

Solution: OCA is enabling a fast-track digitisation of its Farm Programme
with field staff training workshops being conducted as interactive webinars with learnings.

Challenge: Crop diversification is more important than ever before as it will help organic cotton farmers increase their food security.

Solution: In 2020, OCA undertook a study supported by German cooperation organisation GIZ to understand which crop diversification practices could offer the best combination of agronomic, environmental and economic benefits to organic cotton farmers in India.

Challenge: The commitment to the organic philosophy and sustainable
value chains being put into question with a focus solely on economic recovery.

Solution: OCA encourages all brands and retailers to keep buying organic cotton and investing in organic programmes, like OCA’s Farm Programme, to demonstrate
to farmers that there is still market demand and  a clear business case for them to keep growing organic.