Challenging the narrative on cotton’s water use

WASHINGTON DC – Widely-quoted claims that it takes 10,000 - or even 20,000 - litres of water to produce a kilogramme of cotton are refuted by a new study from the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC).

Keshav Kranthi, ICAC’s chief scientist, spent five years monitoring 271 cotton growing locations across 38 countries, analysing daily rainfall, evapotranspiration [annotation - the amount of water lost from the soil and plant surfaces to the atmosphere] and irrigation.