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Ergon research paper at ICAC Meeting |
Ergon recently presented an overview paper at the 65th Annual Plenary Meeting of the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC), identifying some of the key social and labour impacts of cotton cultivation in South Asia, Brazil, West Africa and Central Asia. The ICAC presentation highlighted some of the key issues and outlined potential practical responses for state, private sector and civil society actors in the context of learning from other sectors and perspectives.
There is increasing interest in attempts to address the social sustainability of commodity supply chains. Cotton is no exception. However, with is long and fractured value chain, cotton is not an obvious candidate for supply chain-based ‘ethical trade’. Moreover, many of the impacts discernible in poor producer states where smallholder systems dominate are socio-economic in nature – labour standards are to some degree a symptom of a broader condition.
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