Field to Market Fieldprints for Cotton Production in Georgia

Cotton is an important commodity to the state of Georgia. In 2012, cotton acres planted and harvested exceeded 1.3 million acres. Total crop value for cotton for the same year was estimated at $1.2 billion for lint and seed combined. To maintain its global market share, the cotton industry must document the sustainability and environmental footprint of cotton production. The objective of this research was to develop a baseline of Field to Market Fieldprints for cotton production in Georgia. Georgia cotton growers were identified and selected from various geographical locations throughout Georgia’s cotton producing counties and represented the continuum of large, medium, and small cotton operations. Growers were interviewed and data they provided was assembled to populate the Fieldprint Calculator for at least 2 of their fields with multiple years of data. Data collected was analyzed and used to develop an index of per pound resource impacts to produce cotton lint on land use, soil conservation, soil carbon, irrigation, energy, greenhouse gas emissions, and water quality. Indices from individual producers were compared and contrasted to the national average. Based on the results, Georgia producers appear to have lower impacts than the national average for six of the seven resource areas suggesting that cotton production in Georgia has a smaller environmental footprint than other cotton production areas in the United States.