FW
In the back drop of farmer suicides in Punjab and Haryana due to extensive damage to the cotton crop in 2015-16 because of pest attack has led to a swing in official opinion against genetically modified (Bt) seeds. The two state governments appointed a Joint Action Committee to ascertain the causes and to suggest remedies for white fly infestation. According to its report, the native variety (arboreum) is immune to cotton leaf curl viral disease and comparatively tolerant to white fly and other sucking insect pests. Hence, its cultivation should be promoted in Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan.
According to sources in the Haryana government, an effort is on to assess the availability of traditional variety seeds with the agriculture universities, the Central Institute of Cotton Research and private seed producers. They expect to replace 15-20 per cent of the area under Bt cotton seed with the traditional one this year (rabi 2016-17) and in the next few years to take it to 50 per cent. Co-existence of Bt and non-Bt crop would curtail the chance of spread of epidemics like white fly, as the two crops are resistant to different kinds of diseases. Monoculture in agriculture is one of the causes of widespread diseases in plants. Presently, 95 per cent of the cotton grown in Punjab and Haryana is the Bt variety and this triggered the quick spread of disease.
Owning wool combing mill in the Czech Republic, and buying about 90,000 bales of Australian wool each year, former director of Australian Wool Innovation (AWI), Laurence Modiano's family company is the biggest in Europe. Recently, Modiano released a petition co-signed by 70 per cent of the world's major early stage processers, calling for pain relief to be made a legal requirement for any on-farm surgical procedures for sheep of any age.
According to Modiano, new national animal welfare guidelines released last month, which recommended that pain relief be optional for sheep under six months of age, were an invitation for radical animal rights groups such as People For Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) to attack the industry.
Now Australian wool producers are encouraged to complete a National Wool Declaration for the Australian Wool Exchange, revealing whether their flock has been mulesed — the surgical procedure where skin is cut from the breech of lambs to prevent potential blow fly strike. This year more than 12 per cent of growers declared that they did not mules their sheep and about 21 per cent said they had used pain relief medication.
The industry however, said based on sales figures of the registered surgical spray Tri-Solfen, which was developed for post-mulesing, the number of growers administering pain relief was more likely close to 70 per cent.
Accusing Agile Sweater (Cambodia) Company, part of a group that supplies clothing to Holister, Abercrombie and Fitch, and Nordstrom – of exploiting workers and firing hundreds who have spoken out about human rights violations within the factory, the Collective Union of Movement of Workers (CUMW) asked the Ministry of Commerce to stop the exportation of products from the Cambodian company.
According to Pav Sina, President, CUMW, his organization was asked to intervene by the Ministry of Commerce, because neither the Ministry of Labor nor Agile Sweater have shown a willingness to address worker’s problems. Workers at Agile Sweater have been on strike since December 2015, demanding better working conditions within the factory. Last month, CUMW sent five officials to assist the protesters, which lead to a violent clash with a rival union group and the arrests of the officials. CUMW now wants the Labor Ministry to accelerate their solution-finding process.
According to an official at the Dispute Resolution office, is coordinating a resolution at Agile Sweater (Cambodia) and said the case was very complicated because it involved multiple unions, all of whom accuse one another of not obeying the Labor Law.
Unethical labor practices have been detected at factories in Turkey which supply global fashion brands. As brands up their transparency efforts in relation to environmental impact, closer attention is likely to be given to their labor practices as well. Some of these brands are found to be breaking their sanctioned code of conduct and, even more damaging, their own standards.
Garment workers are subject to severe reprisals, punishments and even dismissals for attempting to unionize. Additionally, workers work hours exceeding the legal limit and many factories’ evacuation routes and emergency exits are not up to par.
Major fashion companies rarely own factories where their garments are made but sometimes they do and violations take place nonetheless. French leather goods house Hermès faced continued pressure from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals following the activist organization’s allegations in June 2015 of mistreatment of alligators and crocodiles that eventually become its handbags and watches.
As fashion brands advertise their spring collection to the fashion world, and boast record earnings to investors, it would be wise for executives to pay attention to consumer concerns. Fashionable people simply don’t want to wear clothing made by exploited workers. Likewise, consumers who choose to purchase leather goods do so in hopes that the animal was fairly treated.
Alliance, the platform of North American apparel brands and buyers in Bangladesh, has brought allegations of unethical engineering practices against three engineering firms in Bangladesh, saying they manipulated and tampered with safety reports. Alliance also says the firms lack practical knowledge to conduct engineering analysis and retrofitting designs. The other allegations by Alliance include part-time engineers, misguiding and harassing factory owners by giving false hopes, late and faulty detailed engineering assessment reports and negotiation with them to avoid retrofitting.
Fire, electrical and structural integrity in some 3,500 garment factories has been assessed by the initiatives Accord and Alliance. Some building owners or manufacturers have failed to provide the necessary documents, including building designs, during structural inspections.
However, one of the engineering firms says Alliance has forced its member factories to conduct engineering analysis by its nominated six engineering firms. So far, eight reports have been approved by both Accord and Alliance, while some are at the final stage of approval. Garment factories under Alliance have to submit reports within six weeks, a time frame which many say is too short.
Alliance has requested the apparel apex bodies such as BGMEA and BKMEA to inform their member factories they should desist from hiring the three firms.
www.bangladeshworkersafety.org/
Woven textile mills of Bangladesh meet only 35 per cent of the thread and yarns required by the booming garment sector. This means, 65 per cent of the requirements have to be met by imports, draining out a huge amount of hard earned foreign currency. Woven textile mills are suffering due to a lack of investment and policy support. Investments in this sector are not happening as business people see spinning as safer than weaving. The power crisis is a major barrier for investment in weaving. Captive power generators do not get new licenses and gas prices have doubled.
Capital machinery imports into Bangladesh in the fiscal year 2014-15 increased by 40.6 per cent over the corresponding period of financial year ’14. Woven textile mills in the country are manufacturing high technology based fabrics with state of the art machinery. But the readymade garment sector has to spend billions of dollars to import natural and cotton fabrics from China, India, Korea and from other countries.
There is certainly a market for woven fabrics in Bangladesh but the investment is not happening. The country has an aim of exporting garments worth 50 billion dollars by the year 2021.
Textiles Ministry is looking to disburse fresh funds to the tune of Rs 30,000 crores to the textile industry under the revised Amended Technology Funds Scheme by 2022. This is due to increased interest from the industry and the opportunities that lie ahead. Indian textile exporters are keen to make a bigger mark on the world stage.
The amount also marks a 67 per cent increase in disbursals from the original plan. Initially, Rs 18,000 crores were allotted for disbursal under the scheme. Under the new scheme, all new units in the textile sector would be facilitated with benefits. Existing units interested in upgrading their technology can also avail of the benefits of this scheme.
When the Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme was introduced in the early nineties, the scheme proved very successful in attracting investments. With the immense opportunities lying ahead in the textile sector, TUFS will be extended to make the textile sector more attractive and make India truly a textile manufacturing hub.
The aim is to bring the Indian textile sector at par with the textile industry in Vietnam, Cambodia, Bangladesh and Pakistan and get a larger global market access with low cost of manufacturing. With the Trans Pacific Partnership, Vietnam looks to upstage its competitors.
The Tangible Media Group has created a completely new form of performance fabric that combines biomaterials research with textile design. This is made possible by imagining a world where actuators and sensors can be grown rather than manufactured, being derived from nature as opposed to engineered in factories.
Bacteria is embedded into fabric to ventilate garments. In the natural world there are a lot of smart materials that are naturally responsive. They are very sensitive to even tiny changes in the skin condition. So the researchers thought an on-skin transformable textile would be a really interesting application.
The synthetic bio-skin reacts to body heat and sweat, causing flaps around heat zones to open, enabling sweat to evaporate and cool down the body through an organic material flux. The garment becomes an interface that can communicate with the body. This garment senses and opens up to release sweat, and closes up to keep the body warm again.
While this project appeals to fashion designers and those creating athletic attire, the Tangible Media group focuses on diverse actuated materials. It is interested in materials that artists and designers would use to express their ideas. This project is aligned perfectly with the group’s vision of human interaction with future dynamic materials. The general idea is not only how we can be inspired by nature, but how we can collaborate with nature.
tangible.media.mit.edu/
Birla Cellulose wants to increase its footprints in Bangladesh. The company is interested in launching in Bangladesh its unique knowledge sharing initiative, Liva Accredited Partner Forum, with the entire value chain partners which includes spinners, knitters, weavers, processors, and garmenters.
Recently Birla Cellulose organized a technical symposium on Current Trends in Viscose Processing in Bangladesh, which was attended by leading global brands, readymade garment exporters, fabricators, spinners and designers who form the fulcrum of the Bangladesh clothing and textile industry.
The symposium emphasised the need for design and product innovation, sustainability in operations and consumer value creation in the competitive world. It also discussed various current trends in viscose spinning as well as in wet processing. Fiber is one of the oldest businesses of the Aditya Birla Group. Birla Cellulose is a world leader in viscose staple fiber. Its production is spread across six countries, Canada, Thailand, India, Indonesia, China and Laos.
The group independently fulfills India’s entire viscose staple fiber requirements. It offers business development and other support to its value chain partners. With a strong focus on R&D, the group’s initiatives span the entire value chain. The company aims to be a world leader in manmade cellulosic fiber.
www.birlacellulose.com/
"The report published by the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) highlights the actions needed to ensure positive impacts on natural capital. It presents 15 different management interventions in the cotton supply chain, focusing particularly on water, biodiversity and soil.An online cotton tool was also unveiled to help businesses identify the types of interventions that are most relevant to their cotton production."
Natural Capital Leaders Platform and leading companies joined forces at Cambridge University with cotton experts to unveil a report that demonstrates the positive natural capital impacts of specific cotton production practices. Seven leading global businesses called on all actors in the cotton industry to accelerate action on natural capital to ensure a sustainable future for the sector. They joined forces with social and environmental initiatives and cotton experts to produce a report ‘Threading natural capital into cotton: Doing business with nature’, that demonstrates the positive natural capital impacts of specific cotton production practices.
The report published by the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) highlights the actions needed to ensure positive impacts on natural capital. It presents 15 different management interventions in the cotton supply chain, focusing particularly on water, biodiversity and soil.An online cotton tool was also unveiled to help businesses identify the types of interventions that are most relevant to their cotton production.
Cotton: One of the most important crops
The report says that cotton is one of the world’s most important crops. Last year, it was grown across 2.5 per cent of global agricultural land. Cotton is worn throughout the world, across socio-economic boundaries. However, the natural resources its production depends upon are at risk and must be safeguarded to ensure the long-term security of cotton supply chains.
The report highlights opportunities to safeguard the natural resources the cotton industry depends upon while at the same time reducing business vulnerabilities and risk. The study concludes that natural capital must be recognised and understood by businesses and incorporated into their decision-making processes. The report aims to inform a constructive dialogue and collaborative work between all actors, from farmers to retailers, and encourage progress towards sustainable and resilient cotton supply chains by providing strong evidence of natural capital impacts.
The online cotton tool
The online tool assesses various types of management practices and their impacts natural capital, such as water, biodiversity and soil. According to Gemma Cranston, Senior Programme Manager at the Natural Capital Leaders Platform, the challenge facing businesses around cotton is that there is not enough evidence around best management practices for natural capital. That is why we convened a group of leading businesses, experts and representatives from sustainable cotton initiatives to begin assessing the evidence for cotton-based management interventions on natural capital. By making it accessible to key decision-makers and influencers within cotton supply chains, more informed decisions can be made to support cotton’s sustainable future, explained Cranston.
The online cotton tool unveiled with the report will help businesses determine the management interventions they should prioritise depending on their position in the cotton supply chain. The tool is based on a technical report that challenges current management practices by providing a robust systematic review of scientific and accessible evidence.
‘Threading natural capital into cotton: Doing business with nature,’ is the result of a collaboration between the Natural Capital Leaders Platform and leading companies including Asda, Bayer, Cargill, C&A, Kering, Olam International and Value Retail, working together with experts and cotton initiatives as part of a Cotton Action Research Collaboratory (ARC).
