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Fairtrade and organic cotton producer visits Devon during Fairtrade Fortnight 2011

Mr Abdoulaye Diakite is a senior Training Adviser of MOBIOM, the Mali Organic Movement. He has more than 10 years experience supporting farmers and community groups in rural and community development. He visited a wide variety of groups, organisations and venues during his two week stay. These included the Eden Project, the Met Office in Exeter and a celebration of Fairtrade at Exeter City Football Club. Abdoulaye also spoke to the largest number of schools ever by a Fairtrade producer during Fairtrade fortnight in Devon.

Hundreds of primary and secondary pupils across Devon were fascinated by Abdoulaye's presentation, delivered in French. He told pupils about life in Mali, about the process of cotton farming and how Fairtrade had benefited his community.

Abdoulaye revealed what a difference Fairtrade had made for the women cotton growers in Mafele, one of the villages he has been supporting. They have felt greatly empowered by the improved, stable and guaranteed income that Fairtrade and organic cotton has bought them as well as improving their working conditions and rights. The social premium, awarded to all communities supplying products to the Fairtrade market, has been used to build a maternity unit which has meant women no longer have to travel 25Km (often by bicycle or on a donkey!) to give birth. They call their Fairtrade and organic cotton "noble cotton" because of what it has done for them. Activities in schools included looking at bogolan art, a traditional process in Mali involving painting symbols with mud onto cotton cloth and playing a role play game that exposes the unfairness of the conventional cotton trade: pupils where horrified that cotton farmers can earn just 5 pence from a cotton shirt costing £5 in the shops.

Abdoulaye clearly enjoyed his visit, and despite a tiring schedule of visits and presentations, always spoke to every new audience with passion. He was warmly received wherever he went.

MOBIOM is an association of cooperatives and organic producers. Abdoulaye's work with MOBIOM has been entirely focused on supporting farmers engaged in organic or Fairtrade production of cotton and rotation crops. As senior Training Adviser, his role consists of helping organic and Fairtrade producers to meet the standards for organic produce set by the European Union and the USA (NOP) and standards set by the Fairtrade Labelling Organisation (FLO). To do this he is involved in the training of groups to improve the governance of their organisations, providing them with a better understanding of organic standards and how to achieve them and helping them to manage and use effectively profits generated from Fairtrade.

The national focus for Fairtrade Fortnight 2011 was Fairtrade cotton, which accounts for less than 1% of cotton fashion on the high street. Fairtrade cotton guarantees a Fairtrade minimum price as well as a Fairtrade premium for investment in social development projects such as water, education and healthcare. You can read more about how Fairtrade has benefited producers and read a new report from the Fairtrade Foundation entitled The Great Cotton Stitch Up which details how US and EU subsidies have had a devastating effect on cotton farmers in West Africa