Abstract
Global production networks (GPNs) are the norms in many sectors of developing economies like India. High-value crops like cotton are seen as candidates for exploitation of global market opportunities for these countries through their insertion into GPNs. But the understanding of the implications of this incorporation is extremely limited in terms of research and documentation, especially from waged farm worker perspective. It is argued in the GPN literature that GPNs can be vehicles for achieving primary producer and worker well-being, but it is important to recognize that at the same time, traditional pressures of costs and efficiency in competitive markets and poor institutional governance can also lead to a situation of “a race to the bottom” in labour standards in farms and factories. In this context, this chapter reviews the state of the art in the Indian cotton sector from a GPN perspective. It places the Indian cotton sector in a GPN framework, assesses the organization and functioning of the cotton GPN, through the lens of institutional theory, from a cotton farm worker perspective, based on secondary sources of data, literature and some insights from field studies. It finds that there are many issues in the cotton GPN like poor wages, labour conditions and gender aspects which call for attention, except in situations of sustainability initiatives like Better Cotton (BC), organic cotton or fair trade cotton. But even in such cases, it is the smallholder focus which tends to dominate while waged worker issues are left unattended or, rather, perpetuated by GPN dynamics and strategies.
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Notes
- 1.
India’s share in global organic cotton production was 81% in 2009–10 (DtE 2013).
- 2.
Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) is a global MSI focused on the farm-level sustainability—economic, environmental and social (Sneyd 2014)—and has picked up pace in the Indian cotton sector with major global players buying as per the BCI standards (Joshi Rai 2011). In 2012, in India, BCI had its presence in all 10 cotton-growing states with 21 projects across 7 Implementing Partners (IPs) and worked with 120,683 producers and 219,360 ha of Better Cotton. It has civil society organizations, suppliers and manufacturers and producer agencies as its members and other stakeholders as associate members. India has one of the largest numbers of BC farmers and BCI-trained farmers and the second largest licensed farmer percentage in total (92%) as it has the highest number of projects in BC globally (Dhingra 2014). The 6 BCI principles at farm level, irrespective of geographical location of producers, include minimum use of crop protection chemicals, conservation and efficient use of water, maintenance of soil health, conservation of natural habitats, maintenance of fibre quality and decent working conditions for farmers, including workers (Joshi Rai 2011).
- 3.
Under fair trade certification systems, there are three types of producers in cotton across the cotton-producing countries and different labour standards apply to them for certification. SPOs are subjected to less rigorous standards under the assumption that they rely mostly on family labour and either do not use hired labour or use hired labour only occasionally.
- 4.
HDPS refers to a system of cotton sowing in which a minimum number of plants are grown per unit area (5000 as against only 2000–3000 at present) and in a manner of spacing which makes it amenable to a single or just two mechanical harvests of the crop. This is done in order to compensate for the loss of yield due to the absence of multiple pickings done manually at present. The mechanical picking is also supposed to eliminate the need for labour and reduce the cost of picking, though the harvesting machines are highly capital-intensive for individual small holders to own.
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Singh, S. (2017). “White Gold” for Whom? A Study of Institutional Aspects of Work and Wages in Cotton GPNs in India. In: Noronha, E., D'Cruz, P. (eds) Critical Perspectives on Work and Employment in Globalizing India. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3491-6_2
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