From Silicon Valley to Swaziland by Rick & Wendy Walleigh (psychology books to read .TXT) 📕

Producing Cotton, Milk, and Pork

With Insights on Race

Leslie went to Washington DC for a series of meetings, so she asked me to attend a meeting of the Swaziland Organic Cotton Task Force, which was working to develop the potential for growing organic cotton in Swaziland. With the increasing global interest in preserving the environment, a nascent market for organic cotton clothes had emerged. A large global retailer specifically had become interested in offering clothes made from organic cotton and had communicated this to one of their clothing subcontractors, Tex-ray, located in Swaziland. Since much of Swaziland’s textile and clothing industry had migrated to China in recent years, the government was greatly interested in retaining some clothing manufacturing in Swaziland. Also, organic cotton growing presented an opportunity for a large number of Swazi farmers. Traditional cotton had been grown in Swaziland in the past, but as world cotton prices collapsed, Swazi farmers found they couldn’t make a profit so let their land lie fallow or switched to other crops.

Organic cotton presented a big opportunity, but it also presented big challenges. The first was simple economics. The projected cost of producing organic cotton was more than three times the cost for producing traditional cotton. Consequently, the biggest question was, “Will there be a market for organic cotton?” Would consumers be willing to pay the premium to have their clothes made from organic cotton, which, unlike organic food, offers little direct benefit to the individual? And if there was a market, would it be large enough for the large global retailer and others to pursue on a continuing basis? Or was this a fad? Beyond the basic economics were all of the challenges to actually producing organic cotton, without typical fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides; on certified, uncontaminated land; not close to the spraying of other crops, etc. However, at this early stage, the opportunity outweighed the challenges, and there was great interest in government and private industry to move ahead. Hence the task force.

There were about twenty people in the meeting. The chairman came from the Ministry of Agriculture as did a number of the other participants who represented different departments within the ministry. Several agricultural research stations were represented as was the engineering department responsible for designing irrigation systems and the land survey department. Tex-ray and the Cotton Board were also represented. The Cotton Board was a parastatal (quasi-government) organization, somewhat separate from the ministry of agriculture, and was responsible for regulating and promoting the cotton industry in Swaziland.

The meeting began with a prayer, as most public meetings did in Swaziland. The chairman then made a few opening remarks about the importance of the opportunity and exhorted everyone to work hard to make it successful. Then we reviewed and corrected the minutes from the last meeting. After correction, the minutes were accepted. The primary item on the agenda was the planned pilot planting of organic cotton, which had to occur within a month or the opportunity would be lost for a year. Many things had to happen before the pilot planting could occur, and these activities depended on a lot of different organizations. The person most on top of all of the dependencies and with the greatest motivation seemed to be Dr. Dan, the agricultural expert from Tex-ray. Dr. Dan had made a lot of calls trying to get the many required parties organized. He had also gotten Tex-ray to make a number of commitments necessary for the project to move forward. At this point, he was mostly reiterating the actions and related responsibilities necessary for the pilot. Tex-ray had committed to buying the cotton coming out of the pilot at an attractive price. Tex-ray was also arranging and paying for the land to be certified as organic. Dr. Dan reiterated the need for the Cotton Board to advance the money for the planting materials to be paid back after harvest. The most difficult commitment seemed to be the need for the Agricultural Ministry to pay for irrigation to be installed.

Regarding the irrigation, the chairman called on the representative from the engineering department who had been asked to design and ultimately construct an irrigation system for the pilot land. The engineer said that he had a problem locating the precise plot on his maps so wasn’t sure what the access to water would be. Then he went into the advantages and disadvantages of a drip system versus a standard spray system. Several other people joined in the discussion, and we learned a