Week 7: Group reading notes

Week 7: Group reading notes

• Biological IPM techniques have the potential to reduce more chemical use than organic cultivation practices.
• This is done by bringing more farmers and hectares into chemically reduced programmes - reducing chemical use across large numbers of farms rather than just eliminating it in a few.
• It has more demand for labour making it more expensive.
• The Sustainable Cotton Project has championed IPM techniques in California through its BASIC (biological agricultural systems in cotton) programme. Over the last seven years BASIC growers have consistently achieved reduction of fungicides, insecticides and miticides by around 70 per cent and is also non-GM.
• BASIC is a biological solution, GM is a technological or industrial ‘fix’ to chemical reduction.
• GM cotton crops now cover 60 per cent of the global cotton area.
• The greatest concern over GM technology is that it’s driven by commercial gain and the goal of making marketable products rather than long-term ecological or social improvements. 
• When introducing GM cotton within their standards, the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), in their first harvest saw a 50 per cent reduction of both pesticides and water use and a 30 per cent reduction of the use of chemical fertilizers.
• Around 50 per cent of cotton is irrigated; the remainder is partially irrigated or depends entirely on rainwater. Currently 99 per cent of West African cotton is rain fed, as is a large proportion of Indian cotton.
•  Rain-fed cotton offers obvious benefits including healthier soils and less demand on the water infrastructure, although there are trade-offs like poorer quality.
• Efficient irrigation techniques are also available, such as drip irrigation that reportedly saves up to 30 per cent water consumption compared to conventional irrigation.Although this technique is labour intensive and only suitable to areas where hand-picking is the harvesting method.