Life Cycle Assessment of Organic,
BCI and Conventional Cotton:
A Comparative Study of Cotton
Cultivation Practices in India
Pragnesh Shah, Abhishek Bansal and Rajesh Kumar Singh
Abstract Cotton, the most important cash crop of India plays a dominant role in its
agrarian and industrial economy. In India, the area under cotton cultivation is the
highest in the world and industry provides livelihood to over seven million people.
However, cotton productivity in India is low and farmers rely on heavy dosage of
fertilizers and insecticides/pesticides to control insects, pests, weeds and growth
regulators. Organic cotton farming is the process of growing cotton without the use
of synthetic pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), is a
concept to grow cotton with judicious use of water, chemical fertilizers and pesticides, to reduce the environmental footprint of cotton farming. The objective of
the study was to quantify the environmental benefits associated with the production
of organic seed cotton and BCI seed cotton compared to the conventional production of seed cotton, using Life Cycle Assessment approach. The aim was also to
identify hotspots across the cultivation process. The study was based on primary
data collected from farming sites managed by Arvind Group under contract farming
model for BCI cotton and organic cotton cultivation in the state of Maharashtra,
India. When compared with the conventional cotton system, the organic and BCI
cotton show considerable advantage for several impacts categories.
1 Introduction
Cotton is an indispensable part of today’s human life and India is now the second
largest producer of cotton in the world, producing around 18% of the world’s cotton
[1]. It has the largest area under cotton cultivation in the world (8.9 Million hectare), representing about 25% of the world area under cotton cultivation [2]. For the
P. Shah Á A. Bansal
Arvind Limited, Naroda Road, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India
R. K. Singh (&)
Thinkstep Sustainability Solutions Pvt. Ltd., 421, Sahar Plaza,
Andheri (E), Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
e-mail: Rajesh.Singh@thinkstep.com
© The Author(s) 2018
E. Benetto et al. (eds.), Designing Sustainable Technologies,
Products and Policies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66981-6_8
67
BCI and Conventional Cotton:
A Comparative Study of Cotton
Cultivation Practices in India
Pragnesh Shah, Abhishek Bansal and Rajesh Kumar Singh
Abstract Cotton, the most important cash crop of India plays a dominant role in its
agrarian and industrial economy. In India, the area under cotton cultivation is the
highest in the world and industry provides livelihood to over seven million people.
However, cotton productivity in India is low and farmers rely on heavy dosage of
fertilizers and insecticides/pesticides to control insects, pests, weeds and growth
regulators. Organic cotton farming is the process of growing cotton without the use
of synthetic pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), is a
concept to grow cotton with judicious use of water, chemical fertilizers and pesticides, to reduce the environmental footprint of cotton farming. The objective of
the study was to quantify the environmental benefits associated with the production
of organic seed cotton and BCI seed cotton compared to the conventional production of seed cotton, using Life Cycle Assessment approach. The aim was also to
identify hotspots across the cultivation process. The study was based on primary
data collected from farming sites managed by Arvind Group under contract farming
model for BCI cotton and organic cotton cultivation in the state of Maharashtra,
India. When compared with the conventional cotton system, the organic and BCI
cotton show considerable advantage for several impacts categories.
1 Introduction
Cotton is an indispensable part of today’s human life and India is now the second
largest producer of cotton in the world, producing around 18% of the world’s cotton
[1]. It has the largest area under cotton cultivation in the world (8.9 Million hectare), representing about 25% of the world area under cotton cultivation [2]. For the
P. Shah Á A. Bansal
Arvind Limited, Naroda Road, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India
R. K. Singh (&)
Thinkstep Sustainability Solutions Pvt. Ltd., 421, Sahar Plaza,
Andheri (E), Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
e-mail: Rajesh.Singh@thinkstep.com
© The Author(s) 2018
E. Benetto et al. (eds.), Designing Sustainable Technologies,
Products and Policies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66981-6_8
67