History

Seeding the Green Future (SGF) Phase I (April 2017 till March 2018)

In order to avoid any loss of season and continue with the breeding material developed under Green Cotton, FiBL established subsequent cotton seed trials with the local partners Chetna Organics, Pratibha Syntex, CottonConnect, Action for Social Advancement (ASA) and the University of Gwalior. This phase was financially supported by Organic Cotton Accelerator (OCA) with the commitment to continue the project for another 4 years and intent to continue beyond.

FiBL’s involvement in organic cotton seed breeding in India

Seeding the Green Future (SGF) Phase II (April 2018 till March 2022)

To combat above challenges, the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) actively tries to address this gap in the organic cotton value chain in India and builds on previous experiences of non-GM organic cotton cultivar evaluation (CCE) and participatory cotton breeding (Green Cotton). In an innovative transdisciplinary approach, smallholders, breeders, researchers, advisors, representatives of spinning and textile industry will be actively involved from the very beginning. SGF Phase II aims to cover 4 full cotton seasons to advance the breeding material of Phase I from F4 to F8 generation for final cultivar development and seed production and at the same time start with new crosses. It started in April 2018 cotton growing season, will progress till March 2022 with final reporting in June 2022. SGF Phase II is financially supported by Organic Cotton Accelerator (OCA) and Mercator Foundation with the intent to continue the project for another 4 years.