Cotton

In 2022, we launched Project Jagruthi to train and support Indian cotton farmers in adopting more sustainable farming practices.

The project was initiated in response to a pink bollworm outbreak in late 2021 that resulted in significant yield losses for many farmers, largely due to limited knowledge of pink bollworm management.

As part of the initiative, LDC conducted a series of educational workshops to train cotton farmers on how to mitigate threats such as pink bollworm and white fly infestations, which affect cotton crops in India. Specific methods were demonstrated alongside technical advice from experts to minimize yield losses due to pest outbreaks, helping to increase production and ultimately incomes.

By the end of 2022, the project had trained more than 7,500 farmers in scientific and technical pest control methods, and equipped them with over 40,000 pheromone traps.

In Zambia, LDC is working alongside organizations such as Aid by Trade Foundation and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (or GIZ) on the Climate Adaptation and Resilience through Improved Soil Management (CAR-iSMa) project, which started in 2022 and will run until the end of 2024.

Project CAR-iSMa aims to help improve soils depleted over the years by suboptimal farming practices, in particular by helping farmers to reduce their reliance on inorganic fertilizers such as D-compound and urea, advocating composting instead.

Other good agricultural practices being promoted through the project include:

• Integrated Production and Pest Management (IPPM), encouraging farmers to apply inorganic pesticides only when the economic pest threshold is established, thus reducing use of chemicals.
• Use of insect traps before bollworm moths lay eggs – a pre-emptive action that ensures fewer chemicals are needed to manage bollworm larvae.
• Crop rotation, which not only helps improve soil health but also generates extra income for farmers from crop diversification.
• Use of environmentally friendly bio-pesticides, encouraging farmers to avoid inorganic pesticides by using readily available plants and other materials.

Over the course of 2022, the project supported approximately 30,000 smallholder cotton farmers (31% of them women) and is well on track to meet its target: to support 60,000 smallholders by the end of 2024.