The Fairy Tale of Thirsty Cotton – Separating Fact from Fiction

For decades, the fast fashion industry has perpetuated myths about cotton, branding it as a "thirsty" crop to justify petroleum-based alternatives. But what’s the truth?

In this insightful statement and experience report, Roland Stelzer, CEO of Cotonea, shares 30 years of expertise in organic cotton cultivation, debunking myths and revealing sustainable practices that conserve water and support the environment.

Some industries like to tell fairy tales in order to sell their products better. For decades, the oil industry has tried to fool us into believing that there is no connection between fossil fuels and global warming. Similarly, the fast fashion industry likes to tell us the story of thirsty cotton in order to flood the markets with its cheap, petroleum-based synthetic fiber fashion.

After 30 years of experience with organic cotton cultivation, we know:

• The cotton plant, regardless of whether it is grown conventionally or organically, is a frugal, drought-resistant and sun-requiring crop. It practically only needs to drink during the first three months of growth.

• Conventional cotton cultivation wastes enormous amounts of water: in case fields are still flooded for irrigation, most of the water seeps away uselessly, evaporates or is lost through leaks - and so the water statistics record phantom consumption.

• The consequences of this mismanagement are often dramatic, as the example of the Aral Sea shows. This once huge body of water has largely dried up because state farms have ruthlessly stolen water from the tributaries for years to irrigate large areas of cropland including cotton.

• The cotton plant actually needs less irrigation than most crops if three conditions are met:

1. Correct location

   Cotton is a heat and sunlight-loving plant. Cotton only requires moist (not swampy) soil during the growth phase of around three months. As soon as the bolls are open, moisture or even wetness will impair the quality. Our two geographically and topographically very different organic cotton cultivation projects show how individually and depending on the respective local conditions each water management system must be structured:
   
   
   • In Uganda, the usual amount of rainwater distributed over the year is completely sufficient.
     
     
   • In Kyrgyzstan, on the other hand, it rains less and our farmers there use the water from the melting snow at the beginning of the growing season, followed by the warm summer, which is beneficial for the cotton plant.
     
     
   Whether there is a lot or little water: together with the cotton farmers, Cotonea works on site to ensure resource-saving water management that takes local conditions into account.

2. Smart Water Management

   This means a targeted water supply, especially in the ten-week growth phase and through drip irrigation. With this technique, farmers direct the water to the roots without loss, and no water is lost through evaporation. Responsible water management must not only be implemented by individual farmers, but by regions as a whole. This is the only way to protect existing water resources - unlike the Aral Sea and other regions. If drip irrigation is used precisely, it can even contain water-loving competitor plants - without herbicides. A role model for this irrigation technology continues to be Israel, a dry, arid country where drip irrigation was developed and is still used extremely efficiently today.

3. Organic Farming

   A central goal of organic farming is a living, humus-rich soil. Humus contains minerals and nutrients, is the habitat of countless microorganisms and, thanks to its structure, significantly increases the water retention capacity of the soil (and also the CO2 storage capacity). This greater water storage capacity of organic soil allows every plant to withstand longer periods of drought. At the same time, humus is only present as a thin and therefore sensitive layer of the soil. Humus is formed by soil organisms, especially fungi. Conventional agriculture damages these fungi through excessive mechanical soil cultivation as well as the use of pesticides and synthetic fertilizers which also pollute the groundwater. Another important aspect of conventional cultivation is the nitrate fertilizer used. This forces the plants to grow, but makes them more prone to disease and increases water loss through transpiration. The higher water requirement of a conventionally grown cotton plant can also be explained chemically. Like every plant, the cotton plant needs nitrogen to grow. The plant produces glucose and oxygen from the combination of nitrogen, CO2, sunlight and water. In conventional cultivation, nitrogen is mainly supplied by artificial fertilizers. In organic farming, it is the humus that makes the nitrogen it naturally contains available.The organic cotton plant needs exactly half as much water for this process compared to the supply of synthetic fertilizers.

To summarize: Organically grown cotton only needs half the water compared to conventionally grown cotton! The main reason for this is the higher humus content and the associated ability to store more water and use it more efficiently.