Mali cotton farmers priced out of business by World Bank reforms : report

In a new report entitled "Pricing Farmers out of Cotton: The Costs of World Bank Reforms in Mali," Oxfam analyzed how efforts to privatize the Malian cotton sector, including the adoption of a new price-setting mechanism, could leave struggling farmers worse off. The situation in Mali is an example of how the burden of low cotton prices is borne by farmers in Africa while farmers in rich countries are insulated, according to Oxfam.

"Mali's three million cotton farmers have been squeezed by American cotton subsidies and now they have to worry about World Bank. "Instead of improving the livelihoods of cotton farmers, a new price-setting mechanism could destabilize cotton as a source of income for millions of farmers and increase poverty rates by five percent."

Mali is one of the world's poorest countries, with over two-thirds of the population, mostly in rural areas. Mali is also the second largest cotton producer in sub-Saharan Africa after Burkina Faso. Whereas the impacts of low and volatile prices are now shared to some degree by many stakeholders in the Malian cotton sector, the new pricing mechanism will actually push the burden of price risk on to the farmers, according to the agency. more...