Luxurious lingerie sold in Victoria’s Secret stores in US malls may seem an unlikely source of hope for women tilling the soil in Burkina Faso. But a pledge by the brand’s owners to help the west African country boost its small but growing organic cotton harvest has already been greeted as cause for celebration.

Hammered by the lowest prices for conventional cotton since the Great Depression in the 1930s, farmers in sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest producer are turning to organic cotton to command a premium. The growers are the latest group of peasant producers in the developing world to tap rising demand for products that soothe social and environmental consciences in the west. While the trend could provide a future for some of the millions of farmers stranded on the edges of the world economy, the story of Burkina Faso shows that success still depends on the whims of retailers half a world away.