Cotton made in Africa ("CmiA") is a project initiative launched and managed by the Aid by Trade Foundation (AbTF), headquartered in Hamburg, Germany. AbTF was founded in 2005 by Dr. Michael Otto, the Hamburg business entrepreneur and Chairman of Otto Group. Cotton marketed under the badge is produced according to strict criteria for environmental, economic and social sustainability.
Development work in Africa
Core principles
'Helping people to help themselves' is a core CmiA principle. The smallholder farmers receive on-site training in improved cultivation methods which allow them to increase their crop yields, generate higher income and thus raise their standard of living through their own efforts. CmiA plans to finance training over the long term through financial contributions from participating cotton trading companies, as well as through levying CmiA licence fees. Strictly speaking, CmiA is not organic cotton but places a strong emphasis on reducing the use of pesticides. However, pesticides listed under the Stockholm Convention are banned, as non-degradable or partially degradable organic toxins, so-called POPs.
Countries
CmiA Project countries include the West African states of Benin and Burkina Faso apart from Zambia - and more recently, Mozambique (April 2008 onwards). These four countries are amongst the poorest on the planet. The CmiA Project reaches around 130,000 smallholder farmers in these regions and their efforts produce ~85,000 tonnes of raw CmiA cotton from a cultivation area of ~160.000 hectares.
Training
During their on-site training, the African smallholder farmers learn about efficient methods of cultivation and best practices to conserve precious resources, thereby increasing their crop yield and quality. This qualification approach is aimed at helping the smallholder farmers find their way out of the poverty trap in the long term, through ownership-driven practices that contribute to a significant improvement in the farmers’ income. Initial studies show that the Project has benefitted the countries: in Zambia, for instance, the crop yields of some groups of farmers have more than doubled, while in Benin the quality of the cotton has been substantially improved after only two planting seasons.
Strategic alliance
In its detailed implementation of the Project, the Foundation works closely with its partners and specialists on site in the Project areas. Besides the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), CmiA is also supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, while the DEG, GTZ as well as the cotton traders Dunavant, ICA Talon and Faso Coton also participate in the Project. Further stakeholders supporting CmiA in an advisory capacity are Accenture, Avery Dennison, German Agro Action, German Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU), McCann Erickson and the World Wide Fund For Nature. With the signature of a partnership agreement in December 2008 between the DEG and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for the support of the cotton sector in sub-saharan Africa, CmiA gained a further valuable partner and sponsor to help finance the roll-out of the Project to other West African countries.
Verification
In-field cotton production, transport, ginning and storage of the raw cotton are all evaluated within the framework of an independent verification process based on a filter and traffic-light system. The structure and content of the CmiA verification system was prepared by the Dutch University of Wageningen and subsequently further developed by the consultancy PriceWaterhouseCoopers, in close co-operation with central Aid by Trade Foundation stakeholders. The core of the verification system contains a filter based on a series of exclusion criteria, as well as a group of sustainability indicators. The exclusion criteria include the most abusive forms of child labour, slavery, forced labour and infringement of freedom of association (union membership). The sustainability indicators include soil and water protection practices such as crop rotation and soil re-fertilisation as well as the responsible use of pesticides.