Posted on November, 07 2024

Gandam Venkatavva in her intercropped cotton fields in Sundaragiri 

Indian farmers are embracing responsible practices to safeguard the environment and ensure a prosperous future for cotton. WWF and IKEA are collaborating to support these efforts, creating a win-win for both people and the planet, as explained by WWF-India's Head of Conservation Partnerships, Neha Sinha.

Gandam Venkatavva wakes up at 5.30 a.m. each morning. 

The 50-year-old farmer finishes tasks at home – cooking, cleaning and other chores – from 6-9 a.m. She is in her intercropped cotton fields by 9.30 a.m. for a workday that ends at 9 p.m.

When we meet in her fields in Sundaragiri (in Warangal in the Indian state of Telangana), the sun is high in the sky, and it is blisteringly hot. 

But just a couple of weeks ago, torrential rains caused the Telangana government to call for school and college closure. 

Close to Warangal, the rains were so heavy that they washed away a part of the railway tracks. 

By late September, the rain has slowed to a drizzle and her cotton plants have flowers; some have cotton bolls peeking out from between the green of the field. 

Frequent rains at this time will cause flowers to drop, increase pest attacks, and destroy open bolls. 

Climate variability is one of the challenges that Venkatavva faces. Others include previously degraded soil quality and pest attacks.

Regenerative agriculture in cotton production

WWF and IKEA have introduced responsible farming practices that help farmers like Venkatavva with the many challenges faced  in cotton agriculture production. 

This is done in a manner that reduces environmental harm. 

WWFs regenerative agriculture practices involves a major focus on improving soil health so that the soil can regenerate nutrients that plants require, while removing highly hazardous chemicals to enhance pollinators that support production services.


Cotton flowers and cotton bush in Sundaragiri

Some of the methods include using natural compost instead of chemical fertilisers, natural pesticides, intercropping (this involves growing two or more different crops together in the same field at the same time) and physical traps for pests. 

In Venkatavva’s fields, the green gram is still young and tender, while the cotton has grown tall. 

If the rains come again, at least part of her crops will survive. 

There are also sticky traps for aphids (a small bug which feeds by sucking sap from plants) and pheromone traps for other pests. 

In the fields supported by the WWF and IKEA partnership, soil organic carbon has increased from 0.32 to 0.44 (measured as percentage of 100 units of dry soil).


Gandam inspecting a sticky trap in her field. The sticky trap catches crop pests like aphids without leaving any chemical residue

A refuge for wildlife 

In Karimnagar, another part of Telangana – this one received a little less local rain in late September – the cotton fields are intercut with purplish-red Sita flowers (a local name for a flower from the cockscomb family). 

There is a long container at one end of the field which is full of stubble. 

This is a compost pit. G Harish, a 27-year-old farmer shelters from the sun under a Neem tree in his farm in Sriramulapalli. 

“Earlier we used to burn the stubble to clear the field. Now, we take the stubble and compost it. 

“Burning the stubble also killed earthworms, which we want to preserve because now we use them in vermicompost. Overall, I’d say I’m enjoying farming.” 

Harish’s generation have piped irrigation. And they have adopted new techniques like intercropping, and creating compost out of farm waste and stubble. 

Today 21,891 farmers are implementing regenerative agriculture practices for 16,756 hectares of cotton fields.

This ensures that the fields have some biodiversity – including insect predators like the carnivorous dragonfly. 

In the fields, I spot the slender-bodied Green marsh hawk and red-orange Ditch jewel dragonflies. 

In a tank between two fields, a heronry of egrets shines across the water. And in an unplanted stretch, a young Red-naped ibis begs its mother for food. 

There are lime butterflies and common rose butterflies everywhere. Baya weaver nests hang from coconut trees, and there are tailorbirds and white-breasted kingfishers. 

It’s not a wildlife reserve, but it is certainly a refuge for some types of wildlife.


A green marsh hawk dragonfly in a tank in between cotton fields and a young red-naped ibis begs its parent for food in a stretch between two cotton fields 

Soil erosion solutions

Telangana is a hot, dry state with temperatures that routinely cross 50°C. 

The extremes can be hard for plants, people and wildlife. Dust blowing across the landscape makes cultivation difficult, farmers say. 

Community land also faces the threat of illegal encroachment. 

Agroforestry prevents top soil erosion and inhibits land encroachment, farmers say. 

In Rukmapur and Marrivanipally villages, farmers are developing plantations to keep soil in place – the roots of trees prevent the dislodging of soil. 

Through the partnership with IKEA, WWF has joined forces with local farmers and completed the plantation of 1.14 million trees, with a 71% survival rate. 

In the young plantations created as part of this project, wildlife is already finding shelter. 

There are nemali (peafowl), adavipandi (wild boar), kundelo (hares), jinka (deer), and nakka (foxes). 

Laxmalla Chandraleela, 43, helps with plantations in Rukmapur. She has a piece of advice. “If we can pluck fruit from a tree that can shelter a bird or animal, everyone wins,” she says. 

The work done by the WWF and IKEA partnership, farmer producer companies, and farming communities demonstrates both strengthening of the local community and a sustained harvest of cotton and other crops. 

This model suggests it can be replicated in other cotton production landscapes – for people and pollinators both.

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