Seed Producer Partnerships
The market demand for organic cotton has been accelerating, as brands and retailers become more conscious about the origin and sourcing practices of their cotton supply. However, a tiny yet crucial agricultural input impedes scaling this supply to meet the increasing demand in India and other regions: the seed.
As the seed forms the starting point of the cotton value chain, the organic cotton sector needs to secure the availability of reliable and locally adapted organic non-GM seed.
Today, OCA works with over 15 farm groups across the cotton-growing states in India who procure and distribute non-GM cottonseed to more than 77,000 farmers under OCA’s Farm Programme.
To serve our growing farming community, OCA is building a community of seed producers who want to invest in developing and producing quality organic cottonseed that performs well for the sector. We have already formed partnerships with seed producers: MARI Organics India Pvt Ltd, Paras Genetech Pvt Ltd, Parshv Genetics India LLP, Partech Seeds Pvt Ltd, Nuziveedu Seeds and Remei India.
If you are a seed company and willing to join this initiative, please contact us at seeds@organiccottonaccelerator.org.
Partnering Seed Producers
Why Join Us?
Increased visibility of seed producers to our partnering Farm Groups and global network.
We are convinced that collaboration between value chain stakeholders and seed producers is pivotal to leveraging the potential of this tiny yet crucial agricultural input for the organic cotton sector.
We love to promote the great work of seed producers who participate in our programmes. We do so through our platform which reaches out to diverse organic cotton stakeholders, especially several of the farm groups across India.
We also maintain a database of commercial seed varieties and partnering seed producers that are shared with our associated farm groups prior to the annual procurement of seeds for their projects. This is a great opportunity for seed producers to promote their non-GM and organic genetic material.
Provide market intel on the seed demand from the organic cotton sector
We also work towards supporting seed producers in understanding the organic cottonseed market through market intel data, and in estimating the forecasted seed volumes demanded by organic cotton farm groups one season ahead, to limit the risks and challenges linked to the under and over-production of seeds.
Promote your efforts toward GMO-free and organic seed production
OCA is supporting the seed producers in their journey of continuous improvement towards GMO-free and organic production through capacity building, advisory support, and verification audits.
Through our Seed Assurance Programme:
- We offer capacity-building support for seed producers to prevent GMO presence in their cottonseed lots and produce seeds under organic farming conditions. Our experts accompany them on this journey, step by step.
- We also verify the compliance of seed producers to our Non-GM Seed Production guidelines, a standardised industry process to produce reliable non-GM seed. We do that using second-party verification audits from Control Union India, combined with GMO tests of the final seed lots procured by our farm partners prior to sowing.
By participating in OCA’s Seed Assurance programme, seed producers can differentiate themselves in the marketplace, while their clients will feel more confident to use them to source reliable non-GMO seed to produce their organic cotton.
Direct product feedback from our partnering farm groups for continuously improving your breeding portfolio
OCA has started a joint seed trial network across our Farm Programme partners.
This means that seed producers partnering with OCA will get the opportunity to have their seed varieties tested and evaluated directly by their potential clients under local organic farming conditions and to get direct insights into the performance of their genetic material.
This market feedback will help you to position your product in the organic cottonseed market, forecast your seed volumes, and finetune your organic breeding strategy.
