Welspun’s WelKrishi initiative unlocks sustainable farming opportunities for India’s cotton growers

Mumbai

Underscoring its Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) focus and commitment to sustainable business practices, Welspun India Limited, global leaders of home textiles, is supporting BCI (Better Cotton Initiative) and organic cotton (Non-GMO) as part of its WelKrishi programme. In association with government and international organizations, the initiative is committed to educating and assisting the farmers associated with Welspun in sustainable agronomic know-how, post-harvest handling, market linkages, access to finance, and awareness on social issues. All administrative costs are borne by Welspun.

In the absence of sustainable farming practices, cotton production can, and has been, presenting significant environmental, social and economic challenges. Cotton farming accounts for the second-highest consumption of water the world over, with 3,000 litres of water required to produce 1 kg of cotton. The industry is also the second-biggest polluter, with 20 per cent of global water pollution caused by toxic wastewater discharge from textile dyeing. On the sociological front, over 60 per cent of India's cotton is produced by smallholder cotton farmers, who are among the poorest and most vulnerable.

Dipali Goenka, CEO and Joint MD, Welspun India Limited, commented, “Sustainable cotton farming is the key to unlocking a radical transformation across the textile value chain in the interest of environmental conservation while lifting millions of people out of poverty by providing a more stable income and improved working conditions. This is precisely what we aim to achieve through our WelKrishi project. Our aim is to establish a robust, self-reliant farming community by promoting balanced sustainable growth.”

Under the initiative, Welspun has set up farm field schools to train farmers in sustainable agronomic know-how and equip them with the necessary technological skills. Besides education and awareness-building, it is providing Non-GMO cotton seeds to organic farmers at a subsidized rate of 25-50 per cent. The brand is also facilitating the associated farmers with access to AI-based technologies for pest management while promoting boom sprayers for the effective and safe application of chemicals.

It has also rolled out Sourcetrace, a complete farm management solution designed to empower the farmers with visibility into the entire agriculture value chain from the field to the market. Besides alerting the users about issues with the crop, the app delivers expenditure information to the farmers while enabling seamless audits of the area under cultivation.

Further, the initiative saw the brand offering financial support to farmers to deploy water-saving farming equipment, contributing INR 8,000 per farmer for sprinkler and INR 20,000 per farmer for the drip irrigation system. It has also constructed 11 farm ponds to harvest water and increase the groundwater level. As part of the post-harvesting marketing support, Welspun has procured 75,000 quintals of raw cotton directly from the project farmers at competitive and transparent rates, paying a 10 per cent premium price to organic farmers.

The organization has also enabled kitchen gardening for 5,000 families to improve the health and livelihood of the community. As part of its social responsibility, Welspun has conducted school programs in 150 villages to drive awareness about child labour, child rights, and their well-being.

Since 2017, the WelKrishi project has empowered over 15,000 farmers and 75,000 farm workers across more than 375 villages in Telangana, Maharashtra and Gujarat to sustainably produce more than 20,000 metric tonnes of cotton.