US Cotton Trust Protocol Represents 23% Of US Cotton Acreage
The U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol said it has tripled its grower membership in just three years, whose 1.7 million acres now represent almost a quarter or 23 percent of the entire US cotton-growing area.
“And while it has expanded enrolled planted acres exponentially, the program continues to drive progress across its six metrics,” US Cotton Trust said in a press release.
According to the Protocol, tripling of enrolled growers brings significant implications for data interpretation and more growers contribute to a larger data set which impacts the statistical findings.
Diversity of practices with a broader group of growers also means there is a greater representation of farming practices, regions, conditions, which in turn helps improve data interpretation and allows for benchmarking.
“At the same time an unusually high or a low value in a single year of exponential growth in enrolled grower members can lead to data anomalies,” it added.
Aggregate data reporting over a three-year period ensures a reduced impact of anomalies as more data is incorporated into the program.
The program reported continued progress across all six metrics of land use; water use efficiency; energy use; greenhouse gas emissions; soil conservation, and soil carbon.
Aggregate improvements on 2015 baseline figures reported are a 79 percent reduction in soil loss with yields 12 percent greater than the national average.
Under other metrics, 83 percent of Protocol growers reported a positive soil carbon index, water use efficiency enhanced by 14 percent, GHG emissions cut by 21 percent and there was a 27 percent reduction in energy use.
