Agricultural biotech company Avalo said it has confirmed the sustainability of its flagship cotton program via an independent cradle-to-grate life cycle assessment (LCA).
The LCA, which was conducted by Indigo Ag, found that Avalo cotton varieties demonstrated a 47 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventionally grown crops. Farmers in Avalo’s program reduced 537 metric tons of CO2e emissions, including removals, and 453 metric tons of CO2e emissions excluding removals.
North Carolina-based Avalo uses AI-powered computational breeding to develop climate-resistant crops that include food plants, as well as cotton. For the latter, the crop evolution company has partnered with 10 farmers in Texas to develop rain-fed cotton that requires less fertilizer and pesticides, reducing its greenhouse gas emission output. In 2025, those farms delivered 351 metric tons of cotton grown on 2,030 dryland acres.
Farmers participating in the Avalo program exceeded their program requirement of applying less than 30 pounds of nitrogen per acre, going so far as reducing fertilizer usage by 71 percent. Only five program fields has any nitrogen present.
The assessment also confirmed a 100 percent reduction in water usage for the crops, a critical metric for water-stressed growing regions such as the Texas High Plains, which sits above the rapidly drying Ogallala Aquifer.
“These results give our farmers, our partners and customers independent, rigorous confirmation that Avalo delivers on our core promise,” said Tricia Carey, chief commercial officer at Avalo. “The LCA isn’t just validation—it’s a foundation for more transparent, accountable supply chains.”
Avalo’s program uses AI-powered genomic selection to pinpoint plant genetics that are optimized for low-input cultivation, which helps reduce the crop’s environmental burden of cultivation without impacting yield or profitability. Last year was the Avalo program’s first commercial season growing cotton, and it’s poised to expand sixfold in acreage in 2026, with all the first-year farmers returning along with additional participants.
Earlier this year Avalo partnered with FarmRaise, an agricultural data infrastructure platform, to support that scaling of its cotton innovation program. FarmRaise’s platform allows Avalo to capture structured field-level data, streamline grower workflows, offer real-time visibility into program performance, and translate field activity into usable insights.
“Avalo is exactly the kind of company that moves the needle in agricultural systems transformation,” says Leigh Cooper Swisher from Indigo Ag. “Their commitment to science, precision, and thoughtful farmer engagement set this collaboration apart from day one and the results speak to what’s possible when innovation meets accountability. We’re proud to have contributed the cradle-to-gate lifecycle assessment underpinning this work for the cotton industry.”
Indigo Ag developed a custom cradle-to-gin gate emissions factor for cotton produced across Avalo’s acreage in Texas—an analysis that quantifies greenhouse gas emissions and related impacts in alignment with Greenhouse Gas Protocol’s Land Sector and Removals Standard. That standard includes all emissions generated during cotton production through the ginning process.
Avalo said that this LCA-backed data is designed to support sourcing decisions, sustainability reporting and industry certification processes for its commercial partners.
