Historical references to cotton date from eight centuries BC. The Egyptians knew it and cultivated it in antiquity; the Incas and other ancient civilizations already used cotton in 4,500 B.C. The cotton plant (Gossypium hirsutum L.) is a shrubby and perennial plant, of indeterminate growth, and simultaneous vegetative and reproductive development. The word derives from al-quTum, in the Arabic language, because it was the Arabs merchants who spread cotton cultivation throughout Europe. This term generated the words cotton, in English; coton, in French; and, cotone, in Italian.
In the 1500s, at the beginning of colonization, there were certain species of cotton being grown in the Brazilian territory. In Brazil, little is known about the prehistory of this plant, but the Portuguese, when they arrived here, realized that the Indigenous peoples knew cotton, already knew how to sew it and made fabrics from it.
There is even an indigenous legend in Northeastern folklore, according to which, at the time of the creation of the world, the Indigenous peoples were very backward, did not know how to raise animals and cultivate the land. They dwelled in the crown of trees, or in caves, to protect themselves from the ferocious animals. It was then that a great wise chief came along—called Sacaibu—who took them to a place where there was hunting. There, the Indigenous built their malocas. The sacred god Tupã gave Sacaibu a seed and asked him to plant it. He obeyed the great Master and waited for his germination. When the plant developed, Sacaibu observed that white tufts came out of its flowers, which the Indigenous weaved and made ropes. Through these ropes, they descended an abyss and discovered a people of great culture, who taught them to live better, to cultivate the land, to raise animals, to make varied utensils and to weave clothes, with the product of the seed offered by Tupã: cotton.
The Portuguese, in turn, despite having grown some varieties of cotton brought from the East in Bahia and Pernambuco (which, later, were taken by the Jesuits to the South of the country), were much more interested in the cultivation of sugarcane. With the arrival of African slaves, however, as a matter of necessity, the colonizers had to plant a few acres of cotton, so that they could make their garments.
In England, until the middle of the 18th century (1760), wool and cotton were spun manually, in rudimentary equipment called distaff, which had very low yield. On the other hand, much of the cotton fabrics were imported from India. The British Parliament then decided to levy heavy tariffs on foreign imports, and this ended up encouraging the country’s own textile industry. Beginning in 1764, James Hargreaves invented and marketed the famous Spinning Jenny, a spinning machine that multiplied production twenty-fourfold compared to the yield of the former distaff. Then, the same inventor made available to the market a new creation of his: the flying shuttle.
The combination of the weaving process with the spinning Jenny represented a true technological revolution, which was augmented by Richard Arkwright’s invention of the water-frame. This creation made possible the intensive production of longitudinal and latitudinal webs. Under the new mechanical processes, production increased from 200 to 300 times, compared to what was produced before, in the same time interval.
In 1792, an invention by Eli Whitney in the United States—the cotton gin—managed to mechanically separate the seeds from the fibers of cotton, in order to substantially reduce its price on the world market. The first machines were inexpensive in order to encourage domestic industry, but with the passage of time and the emergence of the mechanical loom, the manual weavers had to work in the factories.
Competition with Indian cotton fabrics (the most perfect in the world), as well as wool and linen, led England to start a stage of production modernization, by creating new systems and new machines; for example, the steam engine, which has developed the mining and rail and maritime transport industries to a very large extent. Therefore, the combination of inventions in the textile industry, as well as the steam engine (already imagined and designed by Leonardo Da Vinci in the 16th century) were responsible for the increase in production and the decrease in its cost, and promoted the Industrial Revolution, in the period from 1770 to 1870. All the innovations and the consequent increase in world trade gave England an extraordinary advantage: the fabrics produced were light, cheap, of quality, and could be bought by millions of people.
In the mid-19th century, cotton cultivation represented one of the traditional activities, concentrating national production in the Northeast of Brazil, and in some areas of the Northern region, where the plant is native. Due to its condition of semi-aridity and resistance to droughts, cotton has become the main “phytotechnical” option for Northeasterners. From the end of the 1880s, and in the 1890s, the production of cottonseed oil developed, particularly in the state of Pernambuco, in small and poorly equipped factories. In the state of Alagoas, in 1888, an oil factory started operating. In 1892, a large factory was inaugurated in São Paulo, in the Southeast of the country.
In the final years of the 19th century, only five countries—Russia, the United States, India, China, and Egypt—manufactured 98% of the total world cotton production.
Some factors contributed to the expansion of cotton farming in the Northeast of Brazil in 19th century: 1) the opening of ports to friendly nations in 1808; 2) the populational growth and, consequently, the increase in the demand of fabric; and, 3) the stoppage of American production, as a result of the American Civil War, which prevented the United States from meeting the demand of the European market.
In the 1910s, the Industrial Company of Cotton and Oils (Companhia Industrial de Algodão e Óleos–CIDAO), associated with Brazilian capital, started an extensive investment program to gin cotton in the Northeast Region. The program received considerable support from the Federal Government and the State Governments that were interested. Thus, nine ginning plants were installed in several locations in Pernambuco, Paraíba, Rio Grande do Norte, and Ceará.
In the city of Recife, an industrial complex was built, centralizing oil production and refining; and Campina Grande, in Paraíba, became a large cotton-producing region. Cotton farming, exploited by small and medium-sized farmers, started to represent an activity of great socioeconomic significance, both in the supply of raw material for the textile and oilseed industry, and in the generation of jobs and income. Historically, it was called “white gold,” for the wealth it generated.
Northeastern cotton, produced in small farms, is all harvested by hand, providing, when the operation is correctly carried out, the obtainment of a high quality product. In Brazil, in general, two species of cotton are planted: one perennial, in the Northeast Region; and another annual, in the South and Midwest.
There are several shades of colored cotton fibers, ranging from cream to dark brown, from olive green to orange. It is noteworthy that about 40 varieties of wild cotton have already been identified with colored fibers. In the past, colored cotton—because it has a weaker and less uniform fiber than white cotton—could not be used by the textile industries. However, technical work developed by the Brazilian Cotton Agricultural Research Company, Embrapa Algodão, in Campina Grande, genetically improved the quality of the fibers, which enabled their industrial processing. The non-transgenic breeding process developed colored cotton varieties, with a three-year production cycle and a high level of drought resistance. The clothes made in Paraíba, ecological for not using paints, are entitled to the right of the Greenpeace Environmentalist Movement seal.
Since 1989, Embrapa Algodão has started studies and research aimed at obtaining varieties adaptable to new geographical spaces, and increasing strength, length, uniformity, and productivity of the fibers. Thus, by generating and transferring technologies, Embrapa Algodão has been making a great contribution to cotton farming. Each year, Embrapa launches at least two new forms of cultivation, and develops new systems for the production and integrated management of pests and diseases.
Developed in the year 2000, the first BRS 200 cultivar—consisting of the mixture of equal parts of several seeds, and with brown fibers—was the first genetically colored cultivar planted in the country. This has contributed to the emergence of employment for Northeastern artisans and small family farmers.
Colorful cotton is widely used in the crafts of Northeastern Brazil and in ornamentation, as clothes, tapestries, quilts, sheets, cushions, hammocks, among other products.
Some shades of color—specially green—are influenced by sunlight and the type of soil where it is grown, while cream and brown colors are more stable. Most primitive species have colored fibers in the brown shade. Since 1984, such cotton plants have been preserved in the Germplasm Bank, in Patos, state of Paraíba. The pieces made with natural colored fibers are demanded, in particular, by people allergic to synthetic dyes.
Cotton, in addition to its many utilities, is considered by the authorities linked to agriculture as a very important and modern product because in its cultivation and industrialization process advanced technologies are used, generating knowledge, as well as the increase of added value.
Cotton farming allows the intercropping of maize and beans, preserving subsistence crops. The small farmer harvests the beans with sixty days of planting; the corn, with ninety, ensuring their food; and awaits the harvest of cotton, which represents "cash".
In addition to the fiber, several cotton by-products are generated, such as edible oils and margarines (extracted from seeds and produced by the food industry); stearin and glycerin (used by the pharmaceutical industry); and soaps (from the sludge resulting from the refining of the edible oil). Cotton lice—separated by ginning machines—is used by the upholstered furniture industry. The linter is used in the pulp, hydrophilic cotton, filters, films, explosives, among other industries. The waste from the ginning plants has commercial value, also regarding soil fertilization. The branches and leaves of cotton, very rich in protein and of high biological value, also feed the cattle. Moreover, the industrial extraction of oil results in a cake that is used in animal feed (one of the richest diets in protein); the bran is used as nitrogen fertilizer; the shell is used as a fuel and, finally, the last by-product of combustion leaves an ash with high potassium content.
In the 1980s, a serious crisis was established in Brazilian cotton farming, resulting from the spread of the boll weevil (Anthonomus grandis), a plague that reduced production drastically, causing the massive exodus of rural workers to large urban centers, the closure of more than 1,200 small and medium-sized textile industries, and the reduction of 500,000 jobs. The Northeast then went from a large cotton producer, producing more than 220,000 tons of plume per year, to a large importer. The textile chain trade deficit reached US$1.1 billion in 1997. In the mid-1990s, however, the Brazilian cotton production frontier was transferred to the Cerrado, flatland regions, which allow the mechanization of farming, with a strong concentration in Western Bahia.
In the Cerrado, the success of cotton cultivation has been driven by favorable climate conditions, programs to encourage culture and, above all, the intensive use of modern technologies.
It is unfortunate, however, that the small farmers market cotton in a disorganized manner, since they are unable to stock the product, to wait to sell at a more opportune time; nor do they have access to important market information. Cotton seed is sold to intermediaries (also called traversers), who take advantage of farmers’ precarious living conditions, and greatly reduce their revenue. For the latter, the “white gold” is far away: whoever planted it yesterday will not benefit from it tomorrow.
Recife, February 27, 2009.
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how to quote this text
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