Kenya: Biofuel From Cotton Waste

Kenyan farmer Abel Mutie Mathoka thought it must be a joke when he was told he could irrigate his drought-hit crops more cheaply, cleanly and efficiently using a pump fuelled by cotton waste.

"Who could believe it's possible to make a fuel better than diesel from cotton seeds? I didn't!" laughed Mathoka, crouching down to inspect the watermelons on his 10-acre (four-hectare) shared plot in Ituri village in Kenya's southeast Kitui county.

"But it works," he said, walking over to a nearby tree and plucking a large green pawpaw. "Irrigation with this biodiesel water pump has helped me get higher yields, especially during drought periods."

Mathoka said his earnings had doubled in the two years he has been pumping water using biodiesel, which is both more efficient and 20 shillings ($0.20) per litre cheaper than regular diesel.

Unlike most biofuels, which are derived from crops such as maize, sugarcane, soybean, rapeseed and jatropha, it is made from a byproduct of the cotton-making process. That means that as well as being cleaner and cheaper than regular fuel, it is more sustainable than other biofuels because no extra land is needed to produce it.

From Brazil to Indonesia, the rush to cultivate biofuel crops has driven forest communities off their land and pushed farmers to switch from crops-for-food to more profitable crops-for-fuel - exacerbating food shortages.

"Our biodiesel comes from crushing cotton seeds left over as waste after ginning - the process of separating the seeds from raw cotton," said Taher Zavery, managing director of Zaynagro Industries Ltd, the Kitui-based company producing the biodiesel.

"We started producing and using it to power our cotton ginning factory in 2011. With increased production, we now use it for our trucks, sell it to the United Nations to run some of their buses - and also to local farmers for irrigation."

More than 1,200 farmers in Kitui have so far invested in biodiesel pumps for irrigation as part of an initiative launched by Zaynagro in 2015, said Zavery.

A small but growing number are shedding their burden of reliance on the weather - and investing in irrigation systems powered by Zaynagro's cotton seed biodiesel through a pay-as-you-go scheme launched more than three years ago.

Neighbouring farmers band together to invest in the irrigation system - which includes the biodiesel pump, 12 metres of pipes and 10 litres of biodiesel - at costs starting from 32,000 shillings (1US$=KES103; July 2019), depending on the size of the pump.

The farmers make an initial payment, then pay interest-free monthly instalments until the total is paid off. They buy the biodiesel to run the pumps from Zaynagro at Ksh80 ($0.8) a litre.

Full article...

Zimbabwe: Once Lucrative Cotton Farming Sector Struggles

 ...once attractive returns of 'white gold' crop now a distant memory.

One farmer said government’s failure to come up with a competitive pricing regime supported by favourable agricultural policies had compelled most farmers in his area to switch to growing other crops like maize.

Cotton production in Zimbabwe declined to an all-time low of 32 000 tonnes in 2016 from 84 000 tonnes in 2015, and 143 000 tonnes in 2014 after a decade-long spell of perceived low prices averaging US$0,30 per kilogramme.

Full article...

Zimbabwe cotton concern in $30 million loss

Cottco Holdings Limited (Cottco) has registered a $30,2 million loss in the full year to March 31, 2015 from a profit of $14,9 million recorded in the same period last year.

The company’s executive chairman, Douglas Ncube, said the loss included impairments of $11,2 million in respect of trade and other receivables, inventory and inputs receivables.

“Included in last year’s profit is the amount of $37,2 million arising from profit on the disposal of the discontinued operations,” he said. “Group margins have remained low and were compounded by the high producer price paid as a market defense mechanism, a strategy implemented in order to protect market share."

The group also recorded a nine percent decrease in revenue from $42 million to $38,3 million for the period under review.

Cottco, which operates five ginneries in Zimbabwe with an annual processing capacity of 150 000 metric tonnes of seed cotton, is seeking a partner to help it with funding after talks with the China-Africa Development Fund collapsed and as it renegotiates debt payments with lenders.

Trade in its shares on the local bourse, the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange, was suspended, after the troubled group, which has been reeling from debts amounting to $41 million since dollarisation in 2009, applied for provisional judicial management to the High Court.

The group managed to reduce the debt after disposing of its shareholding in two subsidiaries, Olivine Industries and SeedCo.

The company has since suspended its application for judicial management and is talking to lenders about reorganising its debt, Cottco said in a document sent to investors in March.


Zimbabwe's cotton output declined from 145 000 tonnes to 135 000, a seven percent slump due to declining international lint prices which went from $0,89 to an average of $0,72 per pound.

Daily News

Uganda 2012 cotton output almost doubles over 2011 yield

Uganda produced 254,036 bales of cotton in the 2011/12 season, compared to 147,000 bales in 2010/2011.

Production of one of the country's most important cash crops began to go down with the decline of world prices in the 1980s. Instability in the northern Ugandan cotton-growing areas also had an effect. With peace restored, this has contributed to the recovery of the cotton sector.

New Vision

African cotton producers fear U.S. farm bill will worsen their plight

African countries that have protested American cotton subsidies for years recently criticized the Farm Bill making its way through the U.S. Congress, saying it would keep that support under a new guise, according to a June report by AFP.

The Farm Bill, five-year legislation on the nation's agricultural and food policy currently under consideration in the Senate, allows American farmers to insure their harvests against adverse weather conditions with the backing of the federal government.

A delegation of cotton-producing African countries -- Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali -- were in Washington to express concerns that the farm bill will penalize African cotton growers.

"We are worried, because this new element of the farm bill appears to be a subsidy," said the coordinator of the C4 group, Burkina Faso's trade minister, Arthur Kafando.

The C4 group fears that the insurance program being debated in Senate is "more dangerous" than the direct subsidies being provided by Washington.

Kafando, who met with US Trade Representative Ron Kirk and senators, said he called for "a significant reduction, or the elimination of subsidies no matter where they come from, not only the United States, but also China and India."

The farm bill entails $970 billion in spending over the next five years, a reduction of $23 billion from the expiring program, notably due to the elimination of direct subsidies to farmers.

In 2003, the C4 group launched a sectoral initiative on cotton at the Geneva-based World Trade Organization aimed at countering trade-distorting subsidies. But with the Doha round of global trade talks stalled, the cotton issue has remained at an impasse.

Though US subsidies to cotton producers have been reduced by two-thirds since 2004-2005, currently amounting to about $1.2 billion, that decline was led by a rise in global cotton prices.

AFP

Mozambique to grow GM cotton with help from China

Mozambique and China are expected in November to conclude negotiations on introducing genetically-modified cotton into the African country, according to Mozambican daily newspaper Correio da Manhã.

At that time a delegation of technicians from the Mozambique Cotton Institute (IAM) and the Mozambican Institute of Agricultural Research (IIAM) is due to travel to China to conclude negotiations, which will be followed by the first tests, initially in the district of Morrumbala, in Zambézia province.

According to the IAM, genetically-modified varieties of cotton are being tested in 57 countries, involving over 14 million farmers and test fields cover an estimated area of 134 million hectares.

The IAM’s projections show that in 2013 Mozambique is expected to earn US$47.5 million from cotton exports, which this year are expected to total an estimated US$43.2 million.

Club of Mozambique

Egypt's cotton farming sector in steep decline

One Egyptian cotton expert says, "In the 1970s, we used to grow cotton on 2 million feddans, now it has been reduced to 300,000 feddans." (One feddan = 4,200 square metres.)

Reasons?

‘…a marked increase in the cost of farming the commodity, competition from cheaper threads from elsewhere and labour strikes in textile factories.’

As almost everywhere else that cotton farming is in trouble, there is hope that the government will intervene to save the day. It has done so through subsidies for cotton farmers, but with other costs making the country’s cotton uncompetitive, solving the problem is not that simple and straightforward.

Again as almost everywhere else, hard-to-price compete-against fabrics from China are a big issue for Egypt’s textile sector in general, and its cotton farmers in particular.

More…

Plans mooted for China to support Tanzanian cotton farmers

A cash crop with a guaranteed market and various kinds of in-season support from the buyer is the dream of many small scale farmers.

China’s ambassador to Tanzania has proposed just such a link between his home country’s cotton buyers and his host country’s cotton farmers.

This model of cooperation between Chinese agro-buyers and African farmers is in place in other countries and other agricultural sectors.

The buyers identify groups of farmers of their crop of interest. Those farmers are assisted with various inputs whose price is then deducted from the agreed price for their crop at market time.

It is a system that is far from perfect and with many possible problems, but it also has the potential to be a win-win arrangement. The willingness of Chinese companies, often backed by their government in one form or another, to do this for raw materials the country needs has given it a wedge into market sectors that were previously dominated by western buyers, who are generally much less willing to be involved in the production chain.

More…

Can cotton farming in Africa be made viable again?

Chido Makunike

Cotton farming in many African countries has declined over the decades.  Once a lucrative export crop whose farming was accessible to even small scale farmers, the cotton sectors in many African countries are a shadow of their former selves.

Among the challenges are global prices that are no longer as consistently profitable for farmers, the rising cost of inputs, comparatively low yield productivity, and the challenge of competing against countries that subsidize their cotton sectors. Many African countries that used to have important cotton ginning operations have seen them shrivel in the face of hard-to-beat competition (China), leaving the farmers even more vulnerable to distant market forces.  

An important part of Burkina Faso's coping strategy is to now rely on gene-modified seed for up to 40% of its cotton planting to try to increase per hectare yields. Good overall cropping conditions in the current 2012/13 growing season have yielded forecasts of 532,000 tonnes of cotton in the versus 414,000 tonnes last year.

In some countries organic cotton provides an interesting niche market for small numbers of farmers. But generally, the fortunes of African cotton farmers have been declining over the years.
 
Cotton farmers and buyers were this year engaged in price stand offs with each other in at least two countries; Zambia and Zimbabwe. Buyers were accused by farmers of offering much lower prices than they had promised at the start of the season. The buyers protested that a global cotton glut had driven down prices.
 
Governments had to be seen to intervene, and they made threatening noises against the buyers, but short of subdising the farmers in one way or another, which is always short term, there is little they can do. Regulating the sector can address various important issues, but price is the least amenable to regulation.

Rakesh Machanda explains some of the difficulties the cotton sector in Zambia faces, but his example could apply to many other countries. In that country a group of cotton farmers outraged at prices set on fire a truck carrying cotton lint. As in other countries, the 2010/11 prices had encouraged more cotton farmers to plant the crop, accounting fora rise in out put from 180,000 tonnes to this year's 200,000 tonnes.
   
He explains that the farmgate price of cotton In Zambia this year was half that of 2011. Smallholder cotton farming is labour-intensive at every step, and wages in Zambia in 2012 are double what they were in 2011, according to Machanda. Even before factoring in all other costs, this is obviously a losing proposition for the cotton farmer.

In an article entitled 'Cotton farmers’ return to field in doubt,' the Sunday Mail (Zimbabwe) said many discouraged farmers were likely to abandon growing the crop in future seasons, which is not at all surprising given the economics of farming it. This death of the cotton sector by attrition has been observed in many other countries over the years.

According to the article, 'Most farmers said they got an aver­age of $120 per hectare’s production, which was less than half the cost they incurred on inputs. This year cotton marketing was dis­rupted by a price impasse between gin­ners and farmers, with the former offer­ing as low as $0,29 per kg while the latter wanted at least $0,85.'

The price gap between farmers and buyers was huge, "and this season proved that even government cannot save us," said one farmer. The Zimbabwean government in July tried to help the farmers by decreeing prices of between 77 and 84 US cents per kilo for their cotton, but buyers ignored this and offered an average 35 cents a kilogramme.   

The cotton marketing situation was much the same in Malawi. Farmers were left grumbling about merchants' price offers (average US 36 cents/kg), which were below their costs of production and half the average prices of the 2010/11 season. That season's prices actually enticed many more farmers to grow cotton this season, causing Malawi's 2011/12 cotton harvest to rise to 244 000 tonnes compared to only 52 000 tonnes in 2012/11, according to a report President Joyce Banda presented to parliament in May.

Many of the farmers who took to growing cotton did so after having abandoned maize, whose bumper harvests in Malawi in recent years have lowered prices. Not even government assistance with various inputs was enough to make the farmers break even.

The problems of cotton farmers in some parts of Malawi (Zambia and Zimbabwe too) were compounded by long dry spells early in the 2011/2012 rain season, forcing some of them to replant up to three times.

The governments of the three neighbouring countries have pledged to get together to see how they could 'protect the interests of cotton growers.' But the various market and production forces they are trying to cushion their farmers against are probably more powerful than anything they can. 

Farmers in Malawi also suspect collusion between the cotton buying companies because they were said to all be offering the same price. If so, this would be a real-world example of how the 'free market' gospel often doesn't work as intended in undeveloped markets, and why governments often feel compelled to intervene in the marketing of crops.


The harsh environments (hot, dry, often marginal soils) in which cotton is often grown are not readily suitable for other crops, and certainly not many that fetch hard currency on the international market.

Burkina Faso's location in the dry, arid Sahel and cotton's role as the second most important foreign currency earner mean that despite the declining economy of farming it, there are no quickly, easily obvious alternatives. So the country has gladly received a $90 million grant from the World Bank to increase its cotton production, but it remains to be seen whether this will improve the sector's intrinsic viability/competitiveness in the face of global cotton trends, or whether the money would have been better spent to begin to explore how Burkina Faso can earnestly begin to reduce its economic dependence on cotton.  

The good/bad cotton marketing season of recent years are of course entirely normal. But the general trend over many years suggests that small scale cotton farmers in most African countries will find cotton an increasingly difficult crop from which to make a viable, let alone profitable living. It is time to help cotton farmers identify new niche crops.  


African Agriculture

Ivory Coast cotton output continues post-conflict recovery

Ivory Coast expects to beat its 2011/12 cotton harvest of 260,000 tonnes to achieve about 340,000 tonnes in the 2012/13, according to a Reuters report.

Subsidized fertilizer and firm prices are some of the incentives for the increased planting and production.

Ivory Coast is gradually working its way back to the 400,000 tonnes per year it used to achieve before civil war broke out 10 years ago, the worst of the conflict finally ending with the coming in of a new elected government in 2011.

Renewed recent political tension and localized armed violence could yet endanger Ivory Coast's recovery in important sectors like cotton and cocoa.

African Agriculture 

If the price of cotton fell by more than 50% since you planted, would you bother to harvest your crop?

Farming is a business, various ‘experts’ constantly tell farmers, as if they didn’t already know.

Other ‘experts’ preach the religion of the free market to governments, warning them to resist the temptation to interfere in the pricing or marketing of crops.

Here’s a current, real world example of how it is neither easy nor straightforward for governments to leave small scale farmers completely to the whims of the market.

Global cotton prices have slumped this year. Farmers in an area of Zambia who took up cultivation of the ‘white gold’ cash crop are in deep trouble because this year’s selling price is as low as half of last year’s. This is obviously a calamity for them.

The economics of the crop are so bad this year that the cotton farmers in Bbondo ward are reported to be leaving their ripe crop un-harvested in the fields, with some considering burning it.

As ZANIS (news agency) reports, ‘The farmers have decided to suffer double loss by not harvesting the crop only to sell at a give-away price.’

They are being urged to at least harvest the crop for storage, possibly for a time of better prices. That sounds like perfectly logical advice, but it assumes that the farmer can afford to hire labor to harvest and store the crop. This assumption is probably invalid where the bottom has fallen out of the cotton market. An already indebted farmer (seed, pesticides, fertilizer) who has no prospect of recovering his costs and paying his debts, let alone making a profit, must ponder if it makes sense for him to sink deeper into debt to harvest a crop that is a write-off for him anyway, no matter what he does now. And even if he wanted, the usual sources of credit (inputs vendors, family or local loan sharks, etc) are probably largely closed off anyway in a situation where everybody knows how low cotton prices are.

Some of these farmers abandoned maize to grow cotton. Zambia’s maize bumper harvests of recent years have been great for the country’s food security, but surplus means the price for farmers aren’t so great. Although the maize price is controlled by government to try to strike a balance between affordable prices for consumers and a motivating price for farmers, this is not an airtight system.

When the market is flooded, the producer price drops, especially in remote areas where the power of government edicts is often only theoretical. The government may announce a minimum price, but whether they will come to your remote village to buy your maize at that price is something else altogether. You may have to sell to private sector middle-men, whose offered price will be much lower than the government price in a time of surplus.

So these farmers have lost in a number of disastrous ways. They encounter not just huge losses on their cotton, but many of them possibly ruin, or at least years-long hardship from an investment that went very sour. Even if they would like to salvage their crop by harvesting and storing it, they may not be able to afford the added labor costs/losses of doing so. It is a sign of how bad the situation is when a farmer who has tended his or her crop in harsh conditions for months contemplates cutting his losses by abandoning it!

For those farmers who abandoned maize cultivation to devote all their resources to cotton, the situation is even more grave. They put all their eggs in one basket so cannot count on at least some income from maize proceeds. If they had counted on the ‘extra’ income from cotton for purchasing their maize needs, they don’t have that money and they don’t have any household maize stocks to fall back on.

Well, that’s how business is. Sometimes you win big, other times you lose big. ‘Farming is a business,’ tough luck, better luck next time, end of story.

But it cannot be the end of the story for the government concerned. It must be seen to be doing what it can to soften the blow for the farmers.

A councillor in Bbondo ward ‘has called on government to intervene in the pricing process and consider the plight of cotton farmers by adjusting the cotton price upwards.’

The free market/IMF-type response to this is that governments shouldn’t interfere in the workings of the market by fixing or shoring up prices. (At least in poor countries-rich countries are allowed to suspend the religion of free markets when it suits them-subsidies, price various supports, etc.)

The government may not be able to save the situation for these farmers, but neither can it be seen to have completely abandon them simply because that is the free market gospel according to the IMF and others.

The farmers have learned some very expensive lessons which they will no doubt be incorporating into how they do things in future, but they are also in deep trouble now, not tomorrow.

At least the farmers hadn’t planted GM cotton, whose itnputs costs are far higher, and whose seed cannot be saved in case you don’t have the money to buy new seed the following season, as is likely the case for the cotton farmers of Bbondo ward. But with the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) on the loose and with a presence in Zambia, it may be just a matter of time before the famous/infamous ‘Bt cotton’ is introduced. It will be recalled that the higher (often borrowed) costs of growing GM cotton have caused many farmer suicides in India when things didn’t go according to plan.

When the selling price of your crop drops as much as it has done with cotton this year, the ‘old fashioned,’ scorned, ‘low-yielding’ non-GM seed currently in use may be remembered with much fondness for a bad year still giving them the possibility to battle on the following year. Ts he armchair agriculturalists in various salaried isalaists ethose who say it is

African Agriculture

Questions about India's 'major boost to Africa's cotton output'

A much circulated statement says 'India has set in motion a $4.66 million programme to develop the cotton industry across the African continent.'

Questions immediately rise from the first sentence. Africa is very big and varied so any claim about 'across the continent' seems very doubtful, especially given the stated amount of the initiative, the number of beneficiary countries (seven) and the project period (three years, from January 2012 to December 2014). No doubt the people the project will assist will be grateful, but less than $5 million spread so thinly cannot honestly be said to be capable of  'developing the cotton industry across the African continent.'

S.K.Makhijani, economic counsellor in the Indian High Commission in Nigeria, is quoted as saying the project involves training, transfer of technology and ICT-based interventions in production.

"This is an initiative under the aegis of the second India-Africa Forum Summit aimed at strengthening the competitiveness of the cotton sector," Makhijani said, including by, "training in extension technology, training in post-harvest management as well as pilot projects on crop residue-based industries" will be conducted.

It is also expected there would be the establishment of skill schools, exposure visits, advisory support for policy framework and investment promotion.

"It is hoped that these initiatives would change the face of an industry that has suffered a myriad of problems over the years," Makhijani said.

The cotton sector in many African countries is struggling, but it is for complicated local and economic reasons that cannot be addressed by a few projects, no matter how well-intended.

Indian and Chinese interventions are much more thriftily implemented than traditional Western ones that have dominated in recent decades in Africa, but still, the stated outcomes across such a large number of countries  from a distance seem out of proportion to the budget. The seven countries are Benin, Nigeria, Chad, Burkina Faso, Mali, Malawi and Uganda.

It may be oversold by its promoters, but it nevertheless sounds like a good initiative.

African Agriculture

Is the GM cotton touted for Burkina Faso and West Africa really the new 'white gold?'

Cotton is Burkina Faso's most important export crop. As in many other African countries, cotton cultivation and the industry in general have for many years been severely challenged by various factors, including: increasingly unpredictable climate; declining soil fertility; expensive and hard to access inputs like fertilizer; and  low competitiveness versus mechanized, subdized farmers in the US, Brazil and elsewhere.

As a result of all these factors and more, cotton farming is a declining sector in many African countries. But for Burkina Faso and a handful of its West African neighbors, giving up this sector is not as easy as in more agriculturally and economically diversified countries.

As part of efforts to shore up the many challenges of its cotton sector, Burkina Faso adopted GM cotton about 10 years ago. GM cotton has been controversial in India for all sorts of reasons, not all of which apply to Burkina Faso, but the latter country's adoption and use of GM cotton has been a fairly quiet affair. In the African context, GM cotton is far less controversial than the idea of gene technology applied to an iconic food crop like maize, as South Africa has long done and Kenya has recently accepted to start doing.

As with all things to do with GM crops, the benefits of GM cotton for Burkina Faso depend on who you ask. But GM cotton there is firmly established, reportedly accounting for as much as 50% of the total
planted area.

Peter Dörrie critiques comments made by Jean-Paul Sawadogo, the head of the national textile association of Burkina Faso, Sofitex. Sawadogo touts the advantages of GM cotton and expresses the hope that the share of it in in Burkina 'will rise to 60% during the next season and ideally 90% in the future.'

Unlike a lot of the criticisms of gene modification made by many activists, Dörrie's is calm and not overtly ideological. This is relevant and important because it makes his points relatively easy to pay attention to and digest on their merits. There is no obvious sense of his promoting (or necessarily opposing) one or another 'agenda.' He simply raises questions and makes points that come across as being entirely reasonable and fact/logic-based.

Writes Dörrie, ''I see several problems with this anticipated reliance on GM cotton. Firstly, it subjects the cotton farmers (not to speak of the national economy of Burkina Faso) to the whims of a company. Monsanto is not exactly known for its do-gooding attitude and as the “creator” of Bt cotton with the political power of the USA behind it, relying on them as a “partner” is a risky gamble.''

Arguably this point is hard to dispute, regardless of whether one is pro or anti GM. In a business sense, let alone from the perspective of national policy, it seems a strategy fraught with danger for a country to tie the fortunes of its almost sole cash crop to the whims of a far off foreign company that at polite best can be described as aggressive in protecting its commercial interests. Even if Monsanto had a benign reputation, how does it make good sense for Burkina Faso to willy nilly become so dependent on that company to provide the seed for the one crop that drives whatever economy Burkina Faso has? Is this not to virtually  invite future abuse by that foreign commercial entity?

Dörrie also questions what will happen if and when Monsanto raises the price of GM cotton seeds, which he points out 'have to be bought each year from a licensed reseller,' beyond what they can afford. The glib answer to this question has often been that increased production/yields will make the farmers able to afford the GM seed each year, but that has not at all been the consistent expeience of Indian GM cotton farmers. Poor rains (an increasingly likely prospect in Bukina Faso's sub-region) or lack of one or another input can easily wipe out  a small scale cotton farmer, who is often at the edge of disaster even in the best of times.

Dorrie points out that ''the benefits (of GM over conventional cotton) are not as clear as Mr. Sawadogo makes them seem. The evidence on long-time productivity enhancement through the use of GM
cotton is inconclusive, with different studies contradicting each other.'' He goes on to add, ''It is telling that Sawadogo qualifies his productivity claim with the need to use the right fertilizing regime.''

That last point is also important because how to make fertilizer consistently, affordably accessible to small scale African farmers is a huge question that no one has been able to answer, including all the peddlers of the various 'green revolution' gospels that are currently crawling all over Africa.

Dorrie's article is one of the better, more measured critiques of the possible implications of a poor country seeking to turn over almost all source material/seed of its main/sole cash crop to one commercial entity, and one with the reputatin of Monsanto at that.

African Agriculture

Olam International to invest $202 million in Ivory Coast cashew, cocoa, cotton

by Baudelaire Mieu

Olam International Ltd. (OLAM plans to spend 100 billion CFA francs ($201 million) on Ivory Coast investments including two cashew factories and a cocoa- processing plant.

The agricultural commodity trader based in Singapore has just opened a cashew factory with 30,000 tonne capacity in the central town of Bouake, the first of three planned in the county for coming years.

Olam also plans to invest 30 billion CFA francs in a cocoa- processing plant in the western town of San Pedro and double cotton growing in the north to 50,000 hectares (123,500 acres).

Ivory Coast’s cashew output grew to 350,000 tons in 2010, according to the latest data from growers’ group Intercajou.

Bloomberg

West African cotton production up, despite varying national trends

USDA analysis of the West African cotton sector suggests that while weather events have affected the area planted and cotton yields, this season’s cotton production ‘could be as much as a third greater than last year’s production level.’

There is a new (2011/20) region-level cotton strategy to improve the competitiveness of the cotton/textile sector.

The cotton companies raised the prices they paid to farmers for the 2011/12 season – at over FCFA 245/kg, or €0.374 (except for Chad, at FCFA 215/kg or €0.328). These prices were at a historic high.

These incentives have duly fulfilled their purpose in Mali, where production, even if it does not reach the targeted 500,000 tonnes, will nevertheless record a substantial increase.

In Côte d’Ivoire production seems likely to exceed 200,000 tonnes by as much as 50,000 tonnes according to USDA estimates. This is due to high farm gate prices following a 26% increase in June 2011, combined with the October 2011 decision to ‘slash input prices for MY 2011/12 by 25%’ in order to boost farmers’ incomes. The number of farmers sowing cotton is estimated to have increased by over one-third.

In Burkina Faso, a planting boycott by farmers following a failure to secure a 174% increase in farm gate prices is likely to see production substantially below the government’s targeted level of 600,000 tonnes. Indeed, according to USDA projections poor rains are likely to see production of around 380,000 tonnes. While organic cotton production is growing in Burkina Faso (+162%) as a result of a partnership with the US retailer Victoria’s Secret, it remains less than 0.5% of total national cotton production.

Discontent on the part of Burkinabe cotton farmers in some areas calling for a higher price for their produce led to some 100,000 ha of the crop being destroyed

In Mali, despite efforts to promote production, late rains affected seed cotton production. Nevertheless, according to the USDA analysis, ‘production could be as much as 70 percent higher (410,000 tons) than MY 2010/11 (243,588 tons), reaching record levels not seen since MY 2006/07’. Local farmers remain interested in buying the Compagnie

Malienne pour le Développement des Textiles (CMDT). The handover of privatized companies in the Western and Southern regions to the Chinese company Yue Mei ‘is still expected to be finalized by December 2011,’ although USDA suggests the deal still may not go ahead.

In Chad, restructuring of the cotton sector continues. While the government hopes to see production of 60,000 tonnes of seed cotton, USDA believes that production is likely to be only 40,000 tonnes.

In Senegal, abnormal rains are likely to reduce projected cotton production to 20,000 tonnes (from a target of 50,000 tonnes), despite a 24% increase in farm gate prices and the maintenance of input subsidies. Despite the rise in prices paid to producers, production stagnated as a result of farmers mobilizing more slowly than expected, as a result of outstanding payments not having been resolved

CTA

A brief history of cotton farming in Tanzania

Cotton is Tanzania’s most important foreign currency earner after coffee. It currently fetches about US$100 million annually, and up to 500,000 rural families are said to be involved in its cultivation.

Once an important crop for many other African countries, few have been able to remain competitive in the cultivation of the ‘white gold.’ The vagaries of an intensely competitive international market, low yield productivity and controversial farmer subsidies in key cotton growing countries like the US are among some of the reasons that many African countries cotton sectors’ have declined.

The Tanzania Daily News, in a December 05 2011 article headed ‘Ups, downs of cotton farming Tanzania,’ borrows from a Tanzania Cotton Board report to give a brief overview of key developments in the sector since the crop was introduced at the start of the 20^th century.

In the early days all the cotton grown was exported to Europe. Production was 7,200 bales in 1930, rising to 84,000 bales in 1959 and 440,000 bales in 1966.   

Various cotton marketing and regulatory strategies were experimented with over the decades, with various levels of success. Most involved heavy State involvement, in line with independent (1961) Tanzania’s socialism thrust. This was eventually abandoned for a free market economy, which served the cotton sector well. In the 1992/93 cotton season, production went up from 155,115 tons of seed cotton (equivalent to about 290,000 bales of lint cotton) to a record 300,000 tons of seed cotton or 570,000 bales of lint cotton.

Liberalization introduced greater competition in the sector and firmed prices, but also brought challenges with it.

‘Deteriorating cotton neatness, dropping productivity and crippled systems for input distribution and quality cotton seed production were some of the adverse outcomes of the competitive environment under cotton production and marketing. Cotton stakeholders have since 1999 put in place ambitious strategies to counter the impediments haunting the cotton sub-sector and boost production,’ according to the report.

A number of initiatives by the cotton sector and government in recent years have addressed some of these problems, leading to improved supply of farming inputs, research and extension services to cotton farmers.

African Agriculture

Benin more than doubles cotton production in 2011

Cotton production in Benin increased from 130,000 tons in 2010 to 300,000 tons in 2011, news agency PANA reports, citing figures from the country’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries.


Statistics released by the ministry believe the area planted increased to 200,000 hectares, representing nearly 15 per cent increase over the previous season.

During the 2011-2012 campaign, the sector benefited from support through input subsidies.

African Agriculture

Zimbabwe maize harvest to fall 35% on late rains

by Godfrey Marawanyika

Zimbabwe planted 247,000 hectares (610,350 acres) of corn from November to January, down from 379,993 hectares in same period a year earlier as a result of late rains, Agricultural Extension Services said.

The country’s farmers planted 130,944 hectares of sorghum and other small grains, compared with 136,131 hectares, the government organization, known as Agritex, said in a crop report handed out in Harare, the capital.

“It looks like this year is going to be a bad year, in terms of crop output,” said Seiso Moyo, the deputy agriculture minister. “We will inform government on what needs to be done, but indications are that it will not be a good year.”

The United Nations said Dec. 9 it was seeking $268 million to help feed as many as 1.45 million people in the country this year.

Cotton planting also decreased from last season. A total of 45,000 hectares were planted, compared with 107,727 hectares last season. Farmers planted soybeans on 5,079 hectares compared with 13,674 hectares, and tobacco on 39,393 hectares compared with 43,545 hectares.

Business Week

China strengthens cotton trade ties with Africa

by James Fuller

The Chinese government's plans to make China itself an outsourcer - to utilise cotton production in sub-Saharan Africa - have been strengthened by an agreement with the region's four leading producers: Benin, Mali, Chad and Burkina Faso.

Announcing the programme at the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva, Chinese commerce minister Chen Deming said it represented an "aid-for-trade" exchange inspired by the WTO's Doha Development Agenda.

China will provide machinery, materials and training programmes to these four impoverished west African countries, who lobby together on cotton issues as the 'C4'. The move will help the group combat hefty cotton subsidies adopted in wealthier producer countries such as the US, which have been a major hurdle in completing the WTO Doha round.

Chen stated greater trade ties could follow, with sections of the Chinese textiles manufacturing industry being relocated abroad. "In [the] longer term, we may relocate some of the textile and apparel industry into Africa," he said.

Just Style

GM cotton to be commercialized in Kenya by end of 2014

by Ronald Njoroge and David Musyoka

High yielding biotech cotton (Bt) will be commercialized in Kenya by the end of 2014, a Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) scientist has said.

Principal Investigator of Bt cotton in Kenya Dr. Charles Waturu, said in Nairobi that the research institution is currently carrying out field tests on the safety of the three different varieties of Bolgard II, which have been adapted to Kenya’s conditions in readiness for distribution to farmers.

"So far investigations are very promising and therefore an inaugural 40 tonnes of the Bt cotton from South Africa belonging to Monsanto will be shipped into the country for commercial planting by the end of 2014," Waturu said.

Bt variety of cotton incorporates a gene from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis which confers resistance against bollworm. Bollworm is the major pest affecting cotton production in Kenya.

Waturu said that the country will begin with a pilot project of 10 tonnes of the improved variety of cotton which will be grown in the Bura and Hola irrigation schemes and thereafter rolled out to the rest of the farmers in the country.

"The Bt cotton is resistant to one of the greatest threats to the cash crop, Bollworms insect, which discourages cotton growing in the country," Waturu said. He said that farmers therefore don’t have to use as much pesticides as before, which in turn reduces their cost of production and increases profits.

"The KARI centre will also serve as the seed production hub for the East African region," he said.

The local varieties of cotton yields about 800 kg per hectare compared to the new variety that produces 20 percent more in the same area.

According to Waturu, the country produced 21,000 bales of cotton last year compared to a potential of one million bales as farmers are facing numerous production problems.

Central Agriculture Board Chairman Gerishon Nzuva, who has just returned from Burkina Faso on a study tour of the country’s adoption of the Bt cotton, said that the variety is doing well in the West African nation and it could have a positive impact on Kenya’s cotton farmers’ yields.

"While Kenya and Burkina Faso have different growing seasons and conditions, the new variety should improve the cotton sector.''

He also called for good stewardship to manage the gene flow of the new variety. Burkina Faso is the second African country after South Africa to move from trial stage of the Bt cotton to actual farming.

Nzuva said successful commercialization of Bt cotton will provide Kenyan farmers with the opportunity to join farmers from South Africa and Burkina Faso who are already benefiting from commercial growing of Bt cotton.

Commercialisation of Bt cotton seeds is a part of the effort of the government to revive cotton production in the country after it collapsed in the late 1980s.

Cotton production which had touched 70,000 bales (1bale=170 kg) in 1986, touched a low of just 25,000 bales in 2009.

Bt cotton seeds have gained acceptance due to the fact that they do not need spraying of pesticides as well as deliver double the yield. Experts however contend that long use of Bt cotton seeds is harmful to the soil.

KARI says it will control distribution of cotton seeds to avoid sales of spurious seeds.

According to KARI, the country has the potential to grow 260, 000 bales of cotton, by increasing the area of cultivation from 30, 450 hectares at present to 350,000 hectares.

Experts attribute the fall in cotton production in the country to the practice of cultivating recycled cotton seeds, which deliver low productivity and since Bt cotton seeds cannot be replanted, it is expected to eliminate this practice.

Coast Week