Finding collaborators with shared ambitions

Danish womenswear brand GANNI has set itself the ambitious target of cutting its carbon footprint by 50% by 2027. With a significant portion of its greenhouse gas emissions coming down to its raw materials, the brand has specified that it is committed to decreasing its dependence on synthetics – particularly recycled polyester sourced from bottles – which constituted approximately 13.6% of its carbon footprint at the material level in 2022.

After carrying out extensive market research, GANNI was able to refine its objective. “While recycled PET bottle fibers offer substantial opportunity within plastics and polyester, we were keen to explore solutions within true textile-to-textile recycling,” said Julie Verdich, the brand’s Material Innovation Lead. This led them to actively pursue partnerships that could open the door to innovative solutions – like Ambercycle’s cycora®.

cycora® is a regenerative polyester made from post-consumer and post-industrial textile waste. Powered by molecular regeneration technology, cycora® transforms textile waste into virgin-grade materials. The innovative fiber gave GANNI the opportunity to reduce its reliance on both virgin materials and recycled PET bottle fibers, while also ramping up its commitment to addressing environmental impacts at the raw material level.

As an early-stage innovator, Ambercycle was keen to find committed brand partners to integrate cycora® into a product portfolio at scale while educating their end customers on the importance of circularity. From the early days, the company has identified these two pillars as crucial components in building a truly circular economy. After approaching GANNI on a trip to Denmark, they began forging a long-term vision for their strategic partnership.

“While recycled PET bottle fibers offer substantial opportunity within plastics and polyester, we were keen to explore solutions within true textile-to-textile recycling.”

Overcoming the obstacles of early-stage innovation  

Thanks to their collaborative resourcefulness, Ambercycle and GANNI have now launched a sports jersey using cycora® as part of the GANNI Fabrics of the Future Collection. This launch marks the beginning of other releases too.

For GANNI, integrating cycora® required a problem-solving mentality to overcome obstacles not present with more widely used commercial fibers. “Navigating the landscape of innovation comes with challenges related to scaling and availability,” explains Verdich.

In the early days of their partnership, GANNI came up against challenges with the diversity of fabrications and applications feasible, as well as finding limited types of yarn available at the scale needed. “Overcoming this obstacle has required us to forge close partnerships with our supply chain, ensuring that we can meet minimum order quantities (MOQs) while adhering to tight timelines,” added Nava Esmailizadeh, Ambercycle’s Head of Brand.

GANNI stressed the importance of kickstarting collaborations in early stages, to “not only build demand but also provide innovators with the necessary support to scale their production and meet the MOQs required for large-scale manufacturing.”

As it continues to scale, GANNI is also working to raise the recycled content included in its products. So far, it has successfully increased it from 25% to 30%, with plans to reach 70% in the future.

Strengthening partnerships across the supply network

The sports jersey’s launch has been a key milestone in cementing the partnership between GANNI and Ambercycle.

“Once a material is proven with a product launch, we experience closer alignment with the material partner, fostering an environment that allows for seamless progression in the material development,” explains Verdich, expanding on GANNI’s position. “This alignment streamlines the process, making it more straightforward to navigate the subsequent stages of material refinement and innovation.”

From Ambercycle’s perspective, having brand buy-in is key to strengthening partnerships with other stakeholders, thereby ensuring that cycora® is smoothly integrated into the supply chain. The company claims that support from GANNI has been “essential in leveraging mill partners to assist in this process.”

The partners also emphasize the importance of collaborating closely with the whole supply network – especially when it comes to handling innovative materials on a smaller scale. “Their insights help us understand how to support the success of material innovations, and how to effectively collaborate with them,” added Verdich, speaking to the invaluable expertise of its supply chain partners.

“Once a material is proven with a product launch, we experience closer alignment with the material partner, fostering an environment that allows for seamless progression in the material development.”

Embracing the process of continual improvement

In forming this collaboration, GANNI and Ambercycle committed to working together through the steps needed to reach their shared vision, without waiting for policies or conditions to be perfect first.

As Esmailizadeh puts it, “embracing the idea that innovation is an iterative process is key to fostering a culture of continuous improvement and innovation. It’s important to align on a clear vision of where we want to go and stay committed to taking the incremental steps to turn that vision into reality”.

Both partners are calling on others in the industry to take on this mindset of continual improvement toward systems change, made possible through collective action.

“By uniting with other brands, we harness the power of collaboration, enabling Ambercycle and others to secure investment, scale their operations, and thrive in their mission for positive change,” added Verdich. “Through strategic partnerships with forward-thinking companies such as Ambercycle, we aspire to see these innovative solutions expand to a degree where they can effectively support brands like ours in achieving our sustainability objectives.”

The post Bringing Textile-to-Textile Recycled Polyester to Market with Ambercycle and GANNI appeared first on Textile Exchange.

Coming together to fill knowledge gaps

Nylon makes up a substantial portion of lululemon’s material portfolio, presenting a vital opportunity for the brand to address its environmental impacts at the product level.

That’s why, in 2021, the athletic apparel brand started working with Geno – a material innovation company that devises innovative ways to produce materials otherwise made from fossil fuels. Together, the pair set out to create a plant-based nylon-6 that could replace its petroleum-based counterpart, delivering the same feel and quality.

“Our goal was to develop novel technology from lab scale to commercial readiness,” explains Lisa Kennedy, SVP of Strategic Partnerships at Geno. And that’s exactly what they did. In 2023, Geno’s plant-based nylon made its first consumer-facing appearance in a collection for lululemon.

The companies found that their respective areas of expertise could form a mutually beneficial partnership, mixing Geno’s knowledge of the production of monomers with lululemon’s expertise in making nylon garments.

“True collaboration is realized when a developmental or commercial hurdle occurs in either company’s area of expertise and the partners work together to find innovative ways to close the gap,” adds Lisa Kennedy, SVP of Strategic Partnerships speaking to the value of filling respective knowledge gaps through partnership.

“True collaboration is realized when a developmental or commercial hurdle occurs in either company’s area of expertise and the partners work together to find innovative ways to close the gap.”

Fostering collaboration in a complex supply chain

To help bring the plant-based nylon-6 to commercial scale, Geno teamed up with Aquafil, the Italian company behind ECONYL® recycled nylon. Together, they created the building blocks for biobased nylon-6 and converted them into nylon-6 polymer for use in serval applications, including textile fibers.

Since Geno’s polymer is functionally similar to conventional nylon-6, it can be used as a drop-in replacement in large-volume material markets. For lululemon, this enabled the company to maintain consistency with its existing vendors, supply chain, and most importantly, its current products.

Speaking to the importance of integrating innovative raw materials into existing supply chains, Patty Stapp, Senior Vice President, Global Raw Materials at lululemon says “Ultimately, the key to changing a system lies in establishing meaningful and strategic relationships with your supply chain partners.”  

“If you want your innovation partners to succeed, it’s essential to assist them in cultivating long-term relationships within your supply chain, leveraging partners you already know and trust.”

Understanding the impacts of plant-based feedstocks

While taking the plant-based nylon-6 polymer to finished product may have been a smooth transition, one of the key challenges for Geno is to make sure the plant-based feedstock used to create nylon-6 is sustainably sourced. This is a continuous learning process, and as for any land-based raw material, this means understanding how it is grown, and how it might impact climate and nature.

For Geno, the production of plant-based nylon 6 remains in the pre-commercial phase and the company is not yet procuring and sourcing its own sugar-based feedstocks at a large scale. However, this is something it is actively working towards. In the meantime, it has taken measures such as international sugar label audits to understand the potential environmental and social risks of different feedstocks like corn and sugar beet, and then creating a strategy to account for these risks.

For lululemon, the aim is to apply lessons it has previously learned from cotton, especially regarding the importance of farm-level visibility and working to understand farmers’ needs, priorities, and regional nuances.

A further common challenge with producing materials from plant-based feedstocks is that they don’t always fit neatly into existing standards, test methods, and terminology. This has led the partners to work towards laying these foundations themselves.

As noted by Stapp: “When we produce a garment from recycled polyester, there are established practices for discussing and making claims about it.” But to scale innovative solutions like biobased nylon at large, there needs to be a collective industry effort to develop appropriate traceability mechanisms and sustainable certification criteria.

“Ultimately, the key to changing a system lies in establishing meaningful and strategic relationships with your supply chain partners.”

Laying the groundwork for widespread adoption

Both Geno and lululemon are taking a long-term outlook when it comes to supply chain resiliency to make sure that their efforts can facilitate widespread industry transformation.

Beyond the initial application of biobased nylon, the two companies share a long-term vision of creating meaningful change in the nylon market at large. Geno describes the partners’ approach as “committed to long-term impact, while still sprinting for short-term progress.”

To scale to a commercial level, establishing commercial off-take partners and securing investment is key. lululemon has been supporting Geno through funding application processes, with a view for commercial supply to be available for its use in the near term.

Ultimately, the companies see industry collaboration as vital to enabling the adoption of more sustainable alternatives for synthetic materials like nylon. “We want to share our learnings, failures, and lessons along the way to shorten the learning curve for other companies,” summarizes Sasha Calder, Geno’s VP of Impact.

The post Scaling Biobased Nylon with Geno and lululemon appeared first on Textile Exchange.

Harnessing existing connections to scale innovative materials 

Swiss sportswear brand On has given itself the goal of reducing its Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030. For a company that is heavily reliant on the performance characteristics of synthetic materials, this meant moving away from petrol-based chemicals and toward circular solutions. 

That’s where LanzaTech – a tech company setting out to build a circular carbon economy by repurposing waste carbon emissions as the feedstock for raw materials – came in. With a shared vision to prove that it is commercially viable to create products from carbon that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere, On and LanzaTech were both prepared to explore unknown avenues to make it happen.  

The two companies first teamed up in 2019 to produce an EVA (Ethylene vinyl acetate) foam made from waste carbon for On’s sneakers. After three years of problem-solving with multiple value chain partners and the successful proof of concept of On’s CleanCloud® foam later, the pair built on this success to tackle another of the key fossil fuel-derived materials in the sportswear supply chain: polyester. 

“LanzaTech is known as a leader, so it was a natural partner to choose,” explained a spokesperson for On. “We learned that innovation projects get done much faster if we collaborate with existing partners with the same mindset.” 

“We learned that innovation projects get done much faster if we collaborate with existing partners with the same mindset.”

Integrating “drop in” solutions into the supply chain

After discussions began in 2022, On released its first apparel collection made with CleanCloud® polyester from LanzaTech’s CarbonSmart^TM technology in late 2023. In this solution, captured carbon emissions are turned into monoethylene glycol to replace 30% of conventional, virgin PET (polyethylene terephthalate), while the rest of the feedstock comes from purified terephthalic acid (PTA). 

Producing CarbonSmart^TM polyester is a multi-step process, involving a range of actors along the way. Through a commercial-scale process, LanzaTech captures carbon emissions from industrial processes and ferments them into CarbonSmart^TM ethanol. It then works with India Glycols Limited to convert the ethanol into monoethylene glycol (MEG), which is subsequently supplied to Far Eastern New Century, which turns it into PET.  

Given the complexity of the process, what allowed On to move from proposal to production so quickly this time?  Making the most of existing relationships.

Far Eastern New Century was already a listed supplier of On’s yarns and textiles, and LanzaTech had a pre-existing partnership with Far Eastern New Century making CarbonSmart^TM polyester. Compared to the EVA foam project, this allowed the company to significantly reduce research and development and move quickly into the prototype and production phases.

The process was also made more straightforward by the fact that CarbonSmart^TM MEG has the same material properties as fossil-based MEG, allowing it to function as a “drop-in” solution.

Taking a holistic approach to impact measurement

Beyond establishing CarbonSmart^TM polyester as a commercially available solution, an equally important challenge was to understand its impact and see exactly how it can contribute to climate goals. “Carbon capture and utilization is a broad world, and the impact highly depends on feedstock source, technology, region, and infrastructure,” notes Kristen Allison, LanzaTech’s Global Business Development Director. 

LanzaTech invested in externally verified Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs), which enabled the company to understand the emissions savings of CleanCloud® polyester made with CarbonSmart^TM technology when compared to its conventional counterpart. It also allowed the company to pinpoint where to focus future efforts to further reduce emissions.

This includes developing solutions for PTA – an area in which LanzaTech is now actively working. “The carbon footprint of the PET will be further improved once we can combine CarbonSmart^TM MEG with renewable PTA technologies to address 100% of the PET content,” explained Allison. In addition, LanzaTech is working on a direct pathway to produce MEG without making ethanol first. 

Both companies also acknowledge the need to look at impact measurement holistically beyond LCA data and address sustainability from multiple angles. In practice, this means that beyond improving the carbon footprint of downstream materials, LanzaTech isn’t losing sight of its broader vision to create a circular carbon economy where emissions that would otherwise contribute to global warming are transformed into new raw materials that can be used instead of virgin fossil resources.

“Carbon capture and utilization is a broad world, and the impact highly depends on feedstock source, technology, region, and infrastructure.”

Committing to continual improvement going forward 

While LanzaTech has established a commercial supply chain for PET from captured carbon emissions, it is not afraid to admit that additional applications of the technology are a work in progress. For example, LanzaTech is developing a commercial-scale process to recycle textiles and other materials made with CarbonSmart^TM ethanol by coupling a process called gasification with its gas fermentation technology.  

Ultimately, it wants textile waste that cannot be mechanically recycled to be gasified, and the resulting syngas to be fed to the biocatalyst and converted back to MEG (and/or PTA). This means that in a world where PET bottles might not be available as feedstocks for recycled polyester, fashion and apparel companies can operate within a circular system instead. 

For carbon capture technology to reach its full potential, LanzaTech notes that it needs systems on the industry side within which to communicate its sustainability attributes. “The industry needs to develop a framework for certification and traceability for new innovative next-gen materials such as carbon capture technologies,” Allison adds. 

According to On, accelerating and scaling these solutions will rely heavily on building strong relationships with partners that “not only embrace the technology, but are also open to continual innovation and improvements.”  

Ultimately, underpinning the success is the ability of different actors in the supply chain to come together with a mutual understanding. For this to work, “the foundation of open conversations, honesty, and a trust-based relationship is key,” a spokesperson summarizes for On.

The post Using Carbon Capture to Replace Fossil-Based Polyester Feedstocks with LanzaTech and On appeared first on Textile Exchange.

Known to the Ancient Greeks as the Maiandros (Μαίανδρος), Türkiye’s Büyük Menderes river winds its way over 584 kilometers from the Western Anatolia region to the sea on its Aegean coast. It has long been characterized by its leisurely oscillation, so much so that its name Menderes forms the root of the modern English verb “to meander.”

Today, the Büyük Menderes river basin houses a wealth of habitats and biodiversity hotspots. Its delta is an internationally important wetland, where the river meets the sea in an intricate marbling of land and water. Bafa Lake – a former gulf now separated from the sea by sediment – is a haven for visiting birdwatchers and local fishermen alike. Both are home to endangered species including the Dalmatian pelican and European eel.

But the river basin is known for more than just nature. Home to a thriving textile industry and over 42 mills, the land around its sweeping curves also represents the second-largest cotton-producing area in the country. Nested between the delta, Bafa Lake, and the Latmos mountains, the cotton fields of the Soke Plain alone support the livelihoods of approximately 30,000 people.

Often, the activities used for cotton cultivation are at odds with the local ecosystem. From blocking the Büyük Menderes’ natural flow to pool resources for flood irrigation, to polluting the lake with the runoff from synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, the impacts of industry and agriculture are reflected in its waters.

“To understand the risks of farming, you have to go beyond the farms” explains -Eren Atak, the Freshwater Program Manager at WWF-Türkiye, leading its work in the area. Driving through the Soke Plain at harvest season, she points out where some of the problems arise.

While trucks and warehouses are brimming with freshly harvested fibers, the fields are brown and bare, their soil dry, cracked, and left exposed to the elements over the winter. On some plots, late blooming bolls still cling to defoliated stems – on others, machinery is already at work to till the soil or flatten out the fields in preparation for the use of flood irrigation.

Farming in harmony with the local ecosystem

As part of its program in the Büyük Menderes basin, WWF-Türkiye is setting out to show the textile industry that there is a way to produce cotton that gives back to the local ecosystem instead. One solution comes in the form of two pilot plots of land in the Soke Plain, where it is working alongside local farmers and a team of scientists to grow cotton with increased respect for soil, water, and nature.

The first plot is situated at Söktaş, a farm in the small village of Sazlı where farmers have been trialing regenerative practices for five years and working alongside WWF-Türkiye for three. Here, the cotton fields are set against a mountainous landscape, interrupted only by the silver pipes of the farm’s center-pivot irrigation system. It’s currently being tested as a more water-efficient alternative to flood irrigation and is the first sign of the owners’ willingness to find ways to grow cotton that respect the local resources, rather than depleting them.

“We are the owners of the soil, and this is our responsibility,” explains İrfan Uysal, who manages the plot, where low and no-tillage /methods are used and agricultural chemicals are minimized in favor of homemade compost. “We have this resource, and we have to take care of it.”

A few steps into the field further reveal what this looks like in action. The soil is covered under a blanket of mulch, made from a decomposing mix of cover crops like turnip, wheat, pea, and sorghum that protects it from rains and erosion. Grown on the land in the spring before the cotton was planted in their place, each provides it with a unique service, from boosting nitrogen to increasing aeration.

“You can see the biodiversity in the soil – it’s alive,” remarks Uysal, describing the myriad of creatures that have made the mulch their home. “I’ve been farming cotton for 30 years, and this is the first time that I’ve seen earthworms,” he adds, noting how each organism adds value to the soil’s ecosystem and increases its quality.

Observing outcomes from both the land and the lab

Other observations hide under the soil’s surface, only to be made when the cotton plants are pulled up to reveal their roots. “When the root of the plant grows vertically down, it means the soil is more aerated and less compact,” explains Dr Erdem Aykas, a professor at Ege University’s Faculty of Agriculture specialized in farm machinery, and consultant on the pilot. He checks several, and – accepting that achieving the results he wants will take time – sets the specimens and their still slightly unruly roots back down.

Lessons from the land are backed up with data from the lab, where the team closely monitors indicators like soil carbon levels, soil organic matter, aggregate stability, salinity, water holding capacity, and irrigation water efficiency, among many others.

This data is tracked alongside the farmers’ observations in a holistic monitoring approach where worm count – which has increased from zero to 100 per square meter by 10 centimeters of soil in the last two years – is just as important as outcomes like soil pH and porosity.

This careful balance of farm know-how with science and academic expertise helps optimize the practices that are used on the ground. Take the process of growing the cover crops and leaving them on the fields as mulch. To improve how this is done, Dr Aykas led the development of specialized roller crimper machinery, designed to fold the cover crops over before cotton planting begins, allowing them to remain on top of the soil. This process is followed by another no-till farm machine he developed, that cuts open the organic matter and sets the cotton seeds in place.

A similar system of testing and optimizing has been applied to making and applying the compost. “We started by using the recipe from the Soil Food Web School,” explains Iraz Candas, the project’s soil microbiology consultant. “Then we designed and tested a system to apply it that won’t kill the biology in the compost.”

Applying learnings in different geographical contexts

While the team might have landed on local recipes for success, one thing they know for certain is that no plot of land is the same. Methods must be tested in multiple locations on different types of soil, and adapted to the context in which they are used.

The second pilot plot is situated by the sea near the village of Tuzburgazı, offering the team the opportunity to trial their learnings on saline soil with a low organic matter content. It is part of Tanmanlar Agricultural Enterprise – a three-generation family that first got involved with WWF-Türkiye through its work with Better Cotton.

Here, the saltiness of the soil initially proved a challenge for the farmers. “The yields decreased for the first couple of years, at the beginning of our learning process,” recalls Fuat Tanman, who runs the farm as well as sitting as the chair of IPUD, Better Cotton’s strategic partner in Türkiye. “And so you have to be prepared for that.”

Despite the initial difficulties, Tanman persevered with the cover crops and compost recipes optimized with help from WWF-Türkiye and its consultants. Now the pilot is in its third year, and signs of success have started to show. “Usually in this area, the soil organic matter is below 1%,” he explains. “Here, it was 0.8%. But since we’ve been trialing the regenerative practices over the past three years, we have seen it rise to 1%.”

These subtle changes can be observed in the day-to-day management of the farm as well. Metin Samkose, one of the workers who manage the regenerative plot, illustrates the beneficial impacts on the land that he is observing through the concept of “şeytan yolu” or devil’s path – a term used among local cotton farmers to refer to strips of land in which the soil is so depleted that nothing can be grown. “Here, even the seytan yolu is starting to become fertile,” he explains with surprise, as dragonflies circle the lush green field in which he is standing.

Creating a financial safety net for others to experiment

Like Söktaş, Tanmanlar Agricultural Enterprise is big enough to be able to dedicate specific plots to trialing these methods and observing the results, taking the financial risk of a learning-from-doing approach. But decreases in yield are a steep price to pay for soil health, and one that they recognize smallholder farmers cannot shoulder.

“I would like us to be able to inspire other farmers, but it’s so important that smallholders have financial support because while everyone’s soil is different, not everyone can allocate land just to try and test things,” adds Samkose.

Uysal at Söktaş shares a similar sentiment: “We are working with academics, and we are observing the results. We see that this is the right direction, but we’re trying to find the right way to move this journey forward.” He too notes that finance will be key, and that government subsidies for regenerative practices could help.

This is important to WWF International’s vision for the long-term outcomes of its work in Türkiye. The project is part of its global mission to lead the adoption and implementation of water stewardship in the textile sector, and it is running water stewardship programs in countries like China, India, and Vietnam too. With the support of brands and local partners, it hopes that the efforts to test regenerative practices at pilot scale in the Soke region will help to influence policy development around financial support for interested farmers in Türkiye.

To set this in motion, WWF-Türkiye is beginning to diffuse the pilot learnings through a video series for farmers. Currently available on YouTube in Turkish, with English on its way, the series includes everything from compost recipes to simple on-farm soil tests. Beyond the farm gate, the team has facilitated the formation of the Söke Cotton Water Stewardship Committee, which aims to address the wider water problems in the area, and designed another pilot project, this time using modern irrigation systems.

Ultimately, an ecosystem like the Büyük Menderes basin requires a landscape-level approach, and the project’s success will depend on its ability to help inspire and educate others in the region to farm with increased respect for the resources around them. But as climate change threatens the resilience of conventional farming practices in the future, with increasing droughts and unpredictable weather, it almost feels like a shift in the system could be inevitable.

While the hope is that WWF-Türkiye’s pilots will pique local cotton farmers’ interest, encouraging peer-to-peer learning and community building, the team knows that it will take time, and most importantly – investment from the industry that uses the materials they produc“When we as farmers think about what we can do in the face of climate change, one of the key things is to implement these kinds of agricultural practices that help to protect the local ecosystem” summarizes Tanman. “But we do need a financial safety net in which to do so.”

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Cultivating Cotton in a Key Biodiversity Area

Anass Ouaziz was the runner-up of our 2022 photography competition with Magnum Photos, which called on photographers to explore the visual stories that take place when fibers and materials are cultivated, created, spun, woven, sewn, loved and cherished – gaining cultural and emotional significance through the journey.

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It’s February in the town of Glazoué in Benin’s central Aklampa district, and harvest season is nearing its end. The sun is high in the sky, and local smallholder farmers are busy weighing their yields. The community is gathered around a tall mound of soft white cotton, which is slowly packed into large wicker baskets and placed on the scales.

Among the group are Paul Leode and Elisabeth Degbohoue. The pair have been farming their own plots of land organically since 2007 and 2009 respectively, growing cotton in rotation with pigeon peas, peanuts, sesame and manioc, also known as cassava. They keep what they need to feed their family and sell the rest at the market.

Leode and Degbohoue are two of around eight thousand farmers working with the Beninese Organization for the Promotion of Organic Agriculture (OBEPAB), which trains local farmers in organic farming and promotes gender inclusivity. Now, they are safe in the knowledge that the soil that sustains them and their seven children – through both food crops and cotton – is free from chemical inputs.  

“The switch to organic farming practices has enabled my family and I to feel better about our health and to improve the condition of our soils,” Leode shares, speaking to the holistic benefits that come with rotating cash crops with food to eat and reducing exposure to hazardous pesticides.

“Thanks to organic cotton production, I’m able to rotate and combine food crops with growing products to sell without having to worry about contamination. As a result, I no longer need to go to the market to buy food products, because I produce enough to meet my family’s needs.”

“Producing organic cotton is a change of behavior that has never been easy,” he adds, “but with the conviction and the spirit of protecting health and the environment, I have had the courage and the will to overcome the use of chemical inputs.”

Creating space for hands-on learning in the field

When Leode and Degbohoue first decided to participate in the training, they wanted to move away from conventional agricultural chemicals, complaining of skin irritation, dizziness and coughing from contact with chemical pesticides. They had also observed a drop in soil fertility from the prolonged usage of chemical fertilizers, spurring their search for alternative options.

Now, the couple have learned how to use trap crops like okra and bissap – also known as hibiscus – and biopesticides made from ground neem seeds to deter pests on their land. They stay on top of regular weeding to keep their fields clean, replace fertlizers with compost and palm kernel cake, and graze cattle on their plots between rotations.

While cotton supports the livelihoods of half the population in Benin, these methods were long been seen as going against the grain, and women were left out of the conversation. Recognizing the value that an alternative approach to agriculture could bring to local communities, local agronomist Professor Simplice Davo Vodouhe started OBEPAB in 1996 to begin training farmers in an organic, inclusive model, with support from Pesticide Action Network UK (PAN UK).

“We started with cotton, because that is the main crop in Benin that uses pesticides, and with a group of just 17 farmers,” Professor Vodouhe shares. This hands-on approach, based on the Farmer Field School (FFS) model, has since put the learning in the hands of farmers while also understanding and addressing their needs – setting them up for long-term resiliency and independence.

“In a Farmer Field School we host a group of about 25 farmers regularly throughout the season on a “learning plot” where they trial different practices and observe the results for themselves,” adds Rajan Bhopal, International Project Manager at PAN UK. “With this approach, farmers rapidly adopt organic agriculture.” Today, OBEPAB supports more than five thousand certified organic farmers and three thousand farmers in conversion to organic.

Promoting gender parity from the ground up

Alongside training farmers in organic practices, OBEPAB and PAN UK are committed to cultivating gender parity from the ground up.

Degbohoue’s own success speaks to the value of this approach. She now manages an area of land twice as big as the one she started out with. What’s more, women make up 30% of the local organic farmers participating in the project, which is three times as many as for conventional cotton in the area.

This shift would not have been possible without expanding community perceptions around what women can do. “Thanks to the production of organic cotton and the support I get from OBEPAB, my husband has given me good land for my own production,” Degbohoue explains speaking to the success of one of its less conventionally named focus groups: the School for Husbands.

“In the beginning, when men had finished using their land, they’d leave it to their wives to crop,’ explains Professor Vodouhe. “This meant that women were left with poor land with very low yields. So, we needed men to give better land to their wives.”

OBEPAB went on to organize a workshop to help men and women discuss how to improve the situation, educating men to ensure women are given fertile land. And starting out with better soil became a significant step towards their financial independence.

“With better land and improved yield, women were able to get direct revenue from people who buy their products,” Vodouhe continues. “This also improved the overall situation of their households, as it meant they could invest money to help their children go to school.”

For Degbohoue, having access to better land has led to better yields, increased revenue, and financial independence. “I first work in my own field before helping my husband in his,” she notes. “What’s more, my husband no longer has much say in how I manage my income.”

Paving the way for financial freedom

Together with OBEPAB and PAN UK, the local farmers have shown that it is not only possible to avoid the use of pesticides and chemical inputs, but that doing so paves the way for financial freedom.

For the around five thousand farms that are now certified organic, yields are maintained in line with conventional cotton but reduced production costs and a premium price for organic have led to significantly increased profit and greater resilience. In addition, with intercropping and rotation farming techniques, farmers are creating new revenue streams while continually nourishing their soil.

“[Organic farming] has enabled me to improve our income through a 20% premium on top of the conventional price,” Leode shares, speaking to the premium that AIC – the National Interprofessional Cotton Association – pays for organic. “Through my income, it has enabled me to send my children to school.”

Yet despite the successes seen, OBEPAB relies on donors to fund its programs and is keen to attract funding from the private buyers of organic cotton to help cover the costs of training and certification, and support more farmers to convert to organic. Better purchasing practices, such as longer-term commitments would lend more stability to farmers and provide increased assurance for Benin’s fast-growing organic cotton sector.

Establishing the long-term resilience of Benin’s thriving organic cotton sector will be key to making sure any funds from the successes seen so far are invested back into the community. And this is how Degbohoue envisages her earnings being used, along with those of other women who are inspired to join her on the journey.

“By spreading and adopting organic farming on a massive scale, we will be able to build social and community infrastructure in our locality such as wells, shops, and small means of transport to local markets,” she summarizes. “I also hope that spreading the benefits of organic farming will help to protect our environment.”

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Empowering Cotton Communities in Aklampa, Benin

Lindokuhle Sobekwa sat on the judging panel of our 2022 photography competition with Magnum Photos, which called on photographers to explore the visual stories that take place when fibers and materials are cultivated, created, spun, woven, sewn, loved and cherished – gaining cultural and emotional significance through the journey.

The post Empowering Cotton Communities through Organic Farming in Aklampa, Benin appeared first on Textile Exchange.

First published in our Unwoven zine, photographer Cecilie Nicoline Rasmussen travels to the north of France to document the flax pulling process at Terre de Lin, a cooperative specialized in the culture and the conversion of textile flax from seed to fiber.

Every five to seven years in France’s Normandy region, a farmer’s field might turn into a sea of blue flowers. It signals that the flax plants have taken their turn on the land, patiently waiting amid a rotation of crops like peas, wheat, sugar beet, barley, or potatoes.

Cultivating flax for its fiber is an age-old craft in the area, which today has been interwoven with modern practices. Many farmers have learned farming from their fathers or grandfathers, transitioning the know-how between generations, and each growing the crop in their own way.

“It requires a different state of mind than doing things systematically,” explains Anne Nizery from Terre de Lin, a local cooperative of flax farmers, who is showing me around one of the farms. “Of course, farmers are now working a bit differently because there is new technology, but this local knowledge about flax production goes back to their heritage, to the farm where they grew up, and the type of soil that they have.”

“My pictures were taken close to the sea, where the climate is well adapted to growing flax thanks to the loamy soil and intermittency of rain and sunshine. The crop’s success in the area is down to a mixture of nature and know-how.” 

A support system for local farmers, Terre de Lin equips them with the resources, knowledge, and assistance needed to build a flourishing flax industry in the region. Its work begins with supporting farmers in the cultivation of the plants and extends through to the pulling, drying, and extraction of fibers from the stems. Every step demands precision and a profound respect for this temperamental and delicate crop.

My photographs document the journey from the farm to the processing plant. I wanted to show the multifaceted world surrounding flax – its tactile nature, local significance, and sensory richness. For me, the project is about showcasing how the farmers and their machinery are integral to an intricate ecological system that extends beyond the fields, intertwining with the local environment, daily life, and climate context.

Each photograph aims to capture the scent, mood, and sensuality of flax production. I try to seize the immediacy of moments, preserving the experience. Dry flax stems and soft fibers are compared with other textures and forms, as well as people seen and met locally.

The series seeks a deeper understanding of the balance between humans and land through the production of this material.

EXPLORE THE FULL SERIES

The Lineage of Linen

Cecilie Nicoline Rasmussen was the runner-up of our 2022 photography competition with Magnum Photos, which called on photographers to explore the visual stories that take place when fibers and materials are cultivated, created, spun, woven, sewn, loved and cherished – gaining cultural and emotional significance through the journey.

The post Uncovering the Lineage of Linen on Northern France’s Fields with Terre de Lin appeared first on Textile Exchange.