Conservation Cotton Initiative

With support from luxury clothing brand Edun, TechnoServe launched the Conservation Cotton Initiative in 2011. The first phase of the program benefitted an estimated 59,745 people from 2011 to 2013 and managed to establish 150 producer business groups to better link farmers to markets.

Farmers saw an increase in net income of 132 percent. Building on the success of the first phase of the program, phase two was launched in 2014 with support from EDUN, SIDA and the Rabobank Foundation. The second phase of the program holistically addressed market system constraints in cotton and rotational crop value chains via technical and business skill training, access to finance, input service and market linkage strengthening– with a stronger focus on improving women’s economic empowerment and embedding sustainability for business service providers and producer business groups.