Fair Trade Organic Shirts

Cotton Producers in India

Posted on March 14, 2013

The Source of Our Fair Trade Cotton Shirts

The Chetna Organic Cotton Project was launched in 2004 to improve the livelihoods of small, marginalized Indian farmers through the integration of organic and Fair Trade principles at the root of the supply chain. The project promotes sustainable agriculture and fair prices. Farmers produce 100 percent organic and Fair Trade Certified™ cotton without child labor, synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, or GMOs.

Farmers have a direct role in decision-making throughout the production and selling processes. Farmers have representation in two cooperatives: the Chetna Organic Farmers’ Association and the Chetna Organic Agriculture Producer Company. These oversight organizations ensure that the project’s goals are carried out and that benefits go directly to farmers.

Garments manufactured from Chetna cotton are completely traceable back to the farmer’s field where they originated. Farmers are also extensively trained in quality control procedures and certification standards. In six years the project has expanded from 240 farmers to more than 6,000 farmers mainly from tribal belts in India. Almost all of the cotton produced is purchased by an organic and Fair Trade certified factory called Rajlakshmi Cotton Mills Pvt. Ltd.

This established relationship provides many benefits:

Contracts start at the beginning of the season to enable farmers to secure bank loans.
Chetna farmers are shareholders in Rajlakshmi Cotton Mills.
Farmers have access to pre-financing of up to 30 percent of cotton harvest.
Fair Trade premiums for community development have helped set up schools and other social programs in farmer villages.
Fair Trade buyers pay for crops as soon as they are harvested, which immediately provides the farmers with much-needed income.

During 2008-09, the 6,000 farmers earned a total of $43,000 in Fair Trade premiums and together decided on projects to use the funds. The Chetna cotton project fosters the entrepreneurial capacities of farmers, and improves quality of life for farmers and their families. It also offers high-quality organic and Fair Trade cotton to companies and consumers in the U.S

Fair Trade Improves Quality of Life (Animal Grazing Areas, Women’s Bathrooms)

In a village called Keliveli located in the district of Akola in Maharashtra, Fair Trade premiums were used to clear thorny plants from an area where animals graze and to construct a women’s restroom. These projects have resulted in important quality of life improvements for farmers and their families. One Chetna farmer called Fair Trade “A transparent mechanism of trading with no exploitation from buyers or sellers.”

Fair Trade Improves Safety and Profits

Previously, farmers had to risk their families’ health and safety by storing cotton in their homes and selling at high season, which yielded the lowest profits. Fair Trade premiums were used to construct a warehouse where cotton can be stored until low season when prices are higher. Farmers no longer have a dangerous fire hazard in their living spaces.