West Africa: Cotton Breakdown

Avatar para Matt Hopkins Por Scott C. Lucas|29 de maio de 2007

Throughout the region, seed, fertilizer, and pesticides will be delivered late to farmers, and prices are shrinking margins for farmers while still remaining too high for mills to operate profitably.

Internal inefficiencies in the cotton sector remain unresolved and underfinanced. Privatization and structural reforms are moving forward to varying degrees in each country in the region and the financial crisis is often cited as grounds for delaying reforms. Poor roads, poor soils, declining seed quality, lack of storage facilities, aging ginning equipment, and a general lack of market-based risk management techniques persist as endemic problems in each country, reports USDA-FAS.

In addition, technology advancements and yield improvements driven to a large extent by the adoption of Bacilo thuringiensis (Bt) cotton in developing countries in South Africa, Asia, and Latin America are not yet in use in West Africa.

Cotton Production – West Africa
In 1,000 480-lb. bales
  2005/06 2006/07 2007/08
Burkina Faso 1,367 1,238 1,214
Mali 1,003 802 825
Benim 367 462 505
Chade 335 285 260
Senegal 86 100 96
Cote d’Ivoire 500 325 350
Total 3,658 3,257 3,225
Fonte: USDA-FAS

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