Chairman Of The African Cotton Association: Plans To Triple The Output Of Cotton In 2023

Recently, in a meeting held in Lome, capital of Togo, West Africa, Africa cotton Chairman of the association Mohammed
Iya introduced to the participants that the African cotton producers plan to triple the output of raw cotton in the next ten years, from today's 1 million 500 thousand tons / year to 5 million tons / year, in order to better regulate the world. Cotton price 。

Before 1990, cotton exports in West Africa reached 15% of the global total. However, in the early twenty-first Century, the cotton export market shrank sharply, leading to a large number of local cotton producers switching to other crops.

It is worth mentioning that the annual output of cotton in Cote d'Ivoire reached 400 thousand tons in the peak period. After the civil war after 2002-03, the country was divided into two parts, and the resulting chain reaction was that its total cotton output was halved.

"Aside from these natural disasters and man-made disasters, if African cotton growers can put their eggs in one basket and devote themselves to the cause of revitalizing our industry, we will certainly achieve the established goal, and Africa will once again play a leading role in negotiating cotton export prices."
Chairman Iya said optimistically.

There seems to be a recovery in cotton production in Africa. According to a set of data, the output of cotton in the Ivory Coast has reached 360 thousand tons this year. Meanwhile, the number of cotton growers has increased from 80 thousand in the last quarter to 100 thousand in this season.

In Mali, there is also encouraging news. Up to now, the country's cotton output has reached 450 thousand tons, which has surpassed 445 thousand and 314 tons in the previous quarter.

Chairman Iya explained to the participants that in order to maintain this good recovery situation, the relevant organizations should persuade African governments to issue decrees, urge farmers to expand the area of cotton cultivation in the short term, and at the same time, give full support to practitioners, including fertilizer subsidies and agricultural research and technology support, with a view to greatly increasing the output of raw cotton.

He even suggested that African countries could consider using genetically modified cottonseed to better increase production.

At the end of the conference, President Iya revealed that Burkina Faso was the first to use genetically modified cottonseed. In Cameroon and other countries, transgenic cottonseed has entered the final stage of testing.