The Better Cotton Growth and Innovation Fund (GIF) is well under way to meet the target to reach five million farmers by 2020. The fund has been set up by the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) and IDH, The Sustainable Trade Initiative.

In 2016 Better Cotton GIF was also able to invest in more sustainable cotton farming in seven major cotton producing countries: India, Pakistan, China, Mozambique, Turkey, Tajikistan and Senegal. These investments enabled over 6,00,000 farmers to participate in BCI programs over the 2016/17 cotton season.

Better Cotton Growth and Innovation Fund is a global project portfolio designed to be a catalyst for transforming cotton production by achieving scale and impact. The aim is to transition from hundreds of thousands of farmers — more than a third of the total farmers reached by BCI with its partners — to millions.

Better Cotton GIF provides a mechanism for retailers and brands so they can make investment decisions and have an impact on scale they would never be able to reach on their own. It also enables public-private cooperation on an unprecedented scale which adds to its successful implementation. In 2016, BCI saw its retailer and brand membership base grow by 43 per cent.