African cotton producers meet to seek new solutions

The African Cotton Producers Conference will be held at the Hilton Hotel in Cameroon from March 11 to 13. The theme of the conference is the challenges faced by African cotton. The world cotton market will be analyzed, prospected, and forecasted, and the challenges faced by African cotton production will be discussed. opportunities and challenges, as well as issues such as expanding African cotton production and improving cotton quality. Cameroon’s Minister of Commerce Mbarga Atangana Luc Maguar and Minister of Information Isa Chiroma Bakali attended the press conference of this meeting on March 5.
Currently, there are 5 regions in Africa that produce cotton, namely North Africa, West Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, and South Africa. West and Central Africa are important cotton-producing areas in Africa, with 25 million people making a living from cotton production. As European and American countries provide huge subsidies to cotton producers, unfair competition occurs in the international cotton market. International cotton prices continue to fall. Coupled with the continued weakness of the US dollar against the euro, cotton production in African countries has been greatly affected. As the third largest cotton producer in French-speaking Africa, Cameroon’s cotton production reached 306,000 tons in 2004-2005. In 2007-2008, it only produced 124,000 tons, a 50% reduction in production. Farmers’ income also decreased by 30 billion CFA francs. Cotton income per hectare A reduction of CFA 110,000.
In 2004-2005, cotton production in Africa was 2.04 million tons. In 2008-2009, cotton production only reached 1.75 million tons, a decrease of 42%. African cotton production must increase production, apply bioscience and technology to improve quality, improve varieties, and increase cotton fiber content. , take the road of technology-driven production.