Organization and Performance of Cotton Sectors in Africa ... - infoDev

NOTES1. FAOSTAT for total agricultural trade; International Cotton Advisory Council forcotton trade.2. See chapter 2 on cotton’s market context for more detail.3. Although some might argue that Tanzania is an exception, the persistent and veryserious efforts by the government and private stakeholders to resolve the input supplyproblem in the sector suggest that external inputs are considered critical.4. See Glover (1990) for a review of experience in eastern and southern Africa throughthe late 1980s.5. These low costs of production are related primarily to the very low price at whichmany smallholder farmers are willing to “sell” their labor in production of thecrop, and to the low supervisory costs inherent in using primarily family labor. SeeBinswanger and McIntire (1987).6. See Jaffee (1994), however, for an empirical review of the widely varying circumstancesunder which contract farming has emerged, and examples of failure whereexternal conditions seemed favorable.7. One study did look at cross-country experience in selected countries of WCA andESA and considered the pros and cons of different institutional structures (Goreuxand Macrae 2002). Compared with that study, the present work is more comprehensive,has substantially more coverage of ESA, and has the benefit of an additionalfive years of postreform experience in the study countries.8. It is worth noting, however, that production in the two major WCA producers hasdropped sharply in 2007/08 compared with 2006/07: from 700,000 to 360,000 metrictons (a drop of 48 percent) in Burkina Faso and from 442,000 to 243,000 metrictons (a drop of 45 percent) in Mali.9. Except Benin.10. Mozambique is a special case to be discussed later.205