For OCA Contributors, investing in organic cotton means more than supporting farmer training and certification. It also means helping address the supply chain challenges that determine organic cotton’s quality, transparency and traceability. One of the most critical challenges is access to pure, verified and traceable non-GM cotton seed. Securing this type of seed is a systemic challenge in many countries, including in Pakistan. Across the country, farmers, seed producers, and supply chain actors face the same constraint: the near absence of reliably pure cotton seed in the market. Without addressing this bottleneck, scaling organic cotton in Pakistan in a way that is trusted, verifiable, and sustainable risk to remain out of reach.
To help address this gap, the Organic Cotton Accelerator, with technical support from Sustainable Agriculture Water & Intelligent Ecosystem (SAWIE), hosted an Organic Seed Commercialisation event in Lahore. The event brought together seed companies, research institutions, government representatives, textile stakeholders and other value-chain partners to develop a practical roadmap for commercialising non-GM cotton seed in Pakistan.
Building the foundation for organic cotton growth
In 2024, OCA started an Organic Seed Commercialisation project in Pakistan. The initiative responds to a real challenge: pure non-GM seed is hard to come by, while contamination risks and gaps in seed quality assurance are high. The project aims to establish a reliable seed supply system that improves farmer access, strengthens traceability, and supports the expansion of organic cotton production.
This work is conducted in collaboration with SAWIE and four seed partners: Hyacinth Seeds, 360 AG Search, Soorty and Rural Business Development Center (RBDC), and covers three Pakistani provinces: Sindh, Punjab, and Balochistan.
Initiated in 2024 with 1,400 plants selected and maintained to ensure genetic purity and prevent contamination, the project covers now approximately 100 acres under seed multiplication, with expected production of around 40 tonnes of non-GM cotton seed. This progress marks an important transition from testing and multiplication to commercialisation and scale-up, allowing OCA and its partners to make available an increasingly growing supply of pure seed available to farmers in its programme.
Dr. Yousaf Zafar, former Chairman of the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council, highlighted at the event the importance of collaboration across Pakistan’s cotton seed ecosystem. A panel discussion explored how to scale production, strengthen private-sector partnerships and create stronger links between seed companies, farmers and textile markets.
Why this matters to OCA Contributors
Seed is essential to the integrity and scalability of organic cotton. Without access to pure and verified seed, farmers face contamination risks, uncertainty over seed quality, and potential barriers to selling into organic markets.
With investment from its Contributors, OCA is helping secure one of the foundational elements of organic cotton production: access to pure, quality non-GM seed. By building market linkages and bringing stakeholders together to develop a commercially viable seed system, the initiative is reducing risks at the beginning of the supply chain, strengthening traceability and market assurance, and creating the conditions for more farmers to participate in organic production. It is also encouraging private-sector investment and building stronger connections between farmers, seed companies, suppliers and brands; helping create a more resilient organic cotton sector in Pakistan.
