Mali is resuming its position as champion in cotton production with a record harvest of 760,000 tonnes for the 2021-2022 season.
760,000 tonnes of cotton are produced in Mali for 2021-2022 season. This is an unprecedented record that makes the country once again the leader in cotton production on the entire African continent. Thus, Colonel Assimi Goita’s country is ahead of Benin, Côte d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso. C’est à travers la célébration de la fête du coton, ce samedi 19 mars 2022, à Koutiala, à 140 km au nord de Sikasso, en présence du président de la Transition, que la nouvelle a été annoncée. With a record production of more than 760,000 tonnes for the 2021-2022 season, Mali has regained its position as leader on the continent,” said Colonel Assimi Goïta, Head of State.
A forecast from the USDA
A record production that the USDA report of 28 September 2021 had already projected. The report stated that ‘Mali will be the largest cotton producer in Africa for the 2021/2022 season, followed by Benin, Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso’.
The same document reports the areas sown by the four countries covered by the study. As a result, Mali planted a record 795,000 hectares (ha), up 630,000 hectares (382%) from last year’s crop. Ivory Coast also planted a record 460,000 ha, while Benin and Burkina Faso each planted over 600,000 ha this year.
The reasons for this performance
Moreover, despite the difficulties faced by the Malian cotton sector last year, producers and authorities have found appropriate mechanisms to boost production in order to regain their leadership position. This is the first time ever that Mali has achieved this performance. A bumper harvest was achieved thanks to the subsidy of agricultural inputs and the increase in the price of seed cotton from 250 to 280 CFA francs (i.e. 0.42 dollars to 0.47 dollars).
These various measures have motivated producers to focus their energies on the production of white gold and have led to an increase in the area sown to nearly 790,000 hectares compared to only 165,000 hectares last year.
Cotton sector in Mali
As a reminder, Mali has always been part of the small circle of cotton producing countries in Africa. However, for the first time in its history, the country has been expelled from the club for the 2020/2021 campaign. This was due to the boycott of the campaign by producers because of a misunderstanding with the authorities on the price of seed cotton set by the government.
For the 2019/2020 campaign, Mali was for the second consecutive year the second largest producer of white gold in Africa after Benin, which is also making increasing efforts to join the circle of cotton leaders on the continent. In Mali, cotton provides 15% of export earnings and is a source of income for 40% of the rural population.
