Just a year after formally setting up shop in Turkey, the Organic Cotton Accelerator (OCA) is rolling out its Organic Cotton Training Curriculum (OCTC) for farmers and field teams across the nation.
The OCTC takes proven good practices in organic cotton farming and adapts them to Turkey’s soil, climate and growing conditions. The curriculum includes a new dedicated module on regenerative agriculture, offering farmers information on rebuilding soil fertility, supporting biodiversity and strengthening long-term farm resilience.
Related Stories
The new OCTC program also includes modules on farm management designed to help farmers and field staff improve record-keeping, better understand farm economics, and more effectively plan inputs and crop rotations. The curriculum also offers digital literacy modules that allow producers to make better use of digital tools ranging from basic smartphone apps to farm data platforms that can help them track performance and inform decision-making.
“Turkey’s cotton farmers are ready to take the next step, and the OCTC gives them the practical guidance to do so,” said Ömür Suner, country manager for OCA in Turkey. “By tailoring the curriculum to our national agronomic conditions and collaborating closely with local partners, we are ensuring that every field officer and farmer receives relevant, high-quality support. This resource is a cornerstone for strengthening Turkey’s leadership in organic cotton production.”
OCA developed the OCTC in collaboration with Ankara-based Prospera Impact and in consultation with the Turkish Ministry of Forest and Agriculture, testing the curriculum with field teams during hands-on workshops in Turkey’s cotton-growing regions. OCA has previously implemented the curriculum in India and Pakistan, delivering 25 agronomic training sessions since 2022 and strengthening the capacity of nearly 200 field staff. OCA said the success of the program in India and Pakistan illustrates the value of a unified, high-quality training framework for organic and in-conversion farmers.
The launch of the OCTC comes as the next step of OCA’s work in Turkey, after establishing a dedicated local presence in the country in 2024. Turkey ranks among the top 10 cotton-producing countries, accounting for 3 percent of global production or around 3.95 million bales according to the most recent data from the United States Department of Agriculture. India ranks second on that list behind China, and Pakistan falls just ahead of Turkey in sixth place.
This launch comes on the heels of a series of stakeholder meetings OCA conducted in program countries to discuss how to best promote the growth of organic cotton globally. During the November meeting held in Lahore, Pakistan, the group focused on three priority areas: policy, financing and market development.
For the 2025-2026 season, OCA projects that it will support more than 10,000 organic cotton farmers cultivating nearly 60,000 hectares of land in Baluchistan, Punjab and Sindh, Pakistan, producing approximately 16,000 metric tonnes of lint cotton.
The organization hopes to replicate that same level of success in Turkey and sees making the OCTC as accessible as possible a solid step toward that goal. The curriculum will be available to the public in bothy Turkish and English, along with a trainer’s handbook sharing best practices on conveying the knowledge to other field staff. OCA said it will regularly update the curriculum based on feedback from both users in the field and expert insights.
