HYDERABAD - [10.09.09] Zameen Organic, a farmer-owned organic cotton trading and marketing company has received a Rs10 million (US$200,000) investment from venture capital firm, Aavishkaar India.

Zameen, which grows and promotes Fairtrade, organic and pesticide-free cotton, works with marginalised farming communities in rural India to improve livelihoods by increasing efficiencies, lowering input costs and raising incomes through GOTS certification. The funds will be used to strengthen its sales teams across the US, Europe and India with the aim of building up a presence at retail level and in particular in high-street stores.

Zameen was setup in 2006 by Agriculture and Organic Farming (AOFG) India with an initial group of 300 farmers in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, an area renowned for its farmer suicide problem and the tribal area of Adilabad, Andhra Pradesh.

Now numbering more than 4,000, the farmers, who invest their own capital into Zameen, hold the most shares in the company and play a big part in shaping the policies as well as benefitting from shareholder dividends. For every ton of raw cotton Zameen buys from farmers, they set aside an organisation development expense of 1,100 rupees (approximately US$24) to invest in Zameen. Last season, Zameen harvested around 374 tonnes of organic cotton lint.

The AOFG’s aim is to facilitate the development of independent, legally-registered farmer cluster associations that are self managed and able to directly sell organic Fairtrade cotton to buyers to strict international requirements.