BRS Verde is a cultivar with light-green colored fiber whose cycle varies between 130 and 140 days. The plants present an average height of 127 cm, and cream-colored flowers and pollen. For Brazilian Semiarid conditions, the cultivar presented average productivity of 2,146 kg/ha. It is recommended for cultivation in the Brazilian Northeast and can be sown in other regions, in disease-free areas, as it is susceptible to soil and leaf diseases. As it is naturally colored, this cultivar does not go through the chemical processes of bleaching and dying, generating an end product that could be used by consumers who are allergic to the compounds used and/or present in said stages of processing. Moreover, if it is organically produced (without the use of chemical inputs or fertilizers), there could be further added value to the product. In that sense, there is a potential market for the acquisition of children's clothes, underwear, socks, handkerchiefs, winter clothes, t-shirts, blankets and other items.
Cultivating cotton with such specialized fiber is one of the options to have smallholders add value to their production. Colored cotton has 20-30% greater market value than white cotton, increasing farmers' profit earning capacity. The Northeastern cotton production chain is mostly constituted by smallholders with low profitability, which motivated Embrapa's special cotton breeding program to work on the development of alternatives to add value to production.

Who benefits from that?
Smallholders, craftworkers, retailers and consumers

Geographic range
Paraíba, Rio Grande do Norte, Ceará, Pernambuco and Mato Grosso do Sul

Economic benefit
The technology has a lot of potential for expansion into other cotton crop areas. The market share is still small, but naturally colored cotton clothes have been gaining momentum in Brazil and abroad.

Partners
Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos - FINEP (Studies and Projects Financing Agency), Banco do Nordeste-BNB and CNPq