Soorty Seeks to Drive an Organic Cotton Revolution with New Partnership and Initiative

With a push towards creating an organic cotton revolution, Soorty, Pakistan’s largest vertically integrated denim company, has launched the Soorty Organic Cotton Initiative (SOCI). The initiative comes in partnership with the pioneers of organic cotton farming in Pakistan, WWF-Pakistan, and the Department of Agriculture Extension, Balochistan, along with support and input from the Laudes Foundation.

More and more companies are moving away from fast fashion and more towards sustainable options causing the denim industry to undergo a revolution. The use of Organic Cotton has acquired unique favor for the entire denim value chain – from retailers to brands, manufacturers, and consumers in recent years.

The use of regenerative practices – with fewer, if any, chemicals, or fertilizers – to reap a rich and healthy crop isn’t just environmentally conscious but making responsible practices mainstream and the sale of these crops also translates, directly, into more income for farmers and societies.

Soorty Organic Cotton Initiative (SOCI) aims to reach out to all the farmers from the district of Balochistan to identify receptive communities looking to transform their small holdings into exclusively organic farmlands over the long term. Soorty has a different take on organic farming, and, with the help of its partners, are using their project as a vehicle for community uplift.

The first project to be implemented in the region, under the SOCI umbrella, is at Nall – a sub-division of Khuzdar District of Balochistan. Almost 300 kilometers from the provincial capital – Quetta City. People from this largely rural region rely heavily on income from Agriculture and Husbandry to survive and basic government services like education, health and utilities are practically absent. Soorty plans to be an agent of positive change in the area through several health and education sector interventions to improve the quality of life for the locals.

The project is slated to bring an area of approximately 7,000 acres under organic cultivation producing over 17,000 metric tons of Seed Cotton and 6,000 metric tons of Cotton Lint over the next four years. In order to ensure the integrity of the organic cotton, Soorty is putting emphasis on Blockchain-oriented transparency, tracking and traceability of our organic cotton along with rigorous and frequent GMO testing at every step of the chain.

Through the support of Soorty and their partners, local communities are primed for taking this leap successfully. Soorty’s hope is that this project will prove itself over time, and lead to other organizations taking on more community-focused responsibilities than they do at present.

For more information please visit: http://www.soorty.com. 

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Source: Soorty