Ginning

The cotton for the project T-shirt was grown by farmers indigenous to Parchipenta Mandal, located in the Eastern Ghat mountain range in Andhra Pradesh, India. Farmers sow cotton at the start of the monsoon season in June-July and harvest it by hand in multiple rounds from November until January. Each farmer family typically cultivates one to one and a half acres of cotton, roughly the size of a football field, yielding between 250 – 500 kg of cotton per acre, the equivalent of 250 – 500 T-shirts. Most of the work is done manually, with a little help from their bullocks and occasional access to a tractor. Sowing and harvesting area community activities.

Mrs. Ramalaksi, a 25 year old farmer, shares her experiences of regenerative organic cotton farming. Production: Raddis Cotton.

Raddis Cotton works with these farmers through the NGO Grameena Vikas Kendram Society for Rural Development (GVK Society), based in Andhra Pradesh, India. GVK Society provides farmers with year-round training in regenerative organic farming. ‘Regenerative’ means restoring soil and biodiversity, while supporting local communities. The farmers also practice organic farming, so they don’t need to buy expensive and harmful chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Transitioning from conventional to regenerative organic farming can be challenging, and GVK Society supports farmers in making the switch. They also support farmers to certify their crops as organic and help them establish market connections that boost the income they receive from their cotton. Raddis Cotton buys cotton directly from individual farmers through bank transfers, providing transparency about these transactions where this is normally lacking.