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

to reach 25 million tons of lint in 2006, up from 10.2 million tons in 1960.Most of this growth came from China and India, whose production quadrupledduring that period. Today, these two countries account for almost 45 percentof world cotton production and more than half of global consumption.Other countries that significantly increased their production shares during thisperiod were Brazil, Greece, Pakistan, and Turkey (see table 2.1). Some newentrants also contributed to this growth. Australia, for example, which producedonly 2,000 tons of cotton in 1960, averaged 0.5 million tons between1995 and 2005. Francophone Africa produced less than 100,000 tons in the1960s and now produces 10 times that much. The United States and the CentralAsian republics, two of the four dominant cotton producers during the1960s, have maintained their production at about the same levels, effectivelyhalving their global output shares. A number of Central American countries thattogether accounted for 250,000 tons during the 1970s now produce virtually nocotton at all.About one-third of cotton production is traded internationally. The threedominant exporters—the United States, Central Asia, and FrancophoneAfrica—account for more than two-thirds of global exports. Overall, Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) increased its share in world cotton trade from 7 percentin 1960 to 15 percent in 2006. However, the export performances of West andCentral Africa (WCA) and East and Southern Africa (ESA) differ considerably.In 1960, WCA accounted for a little more than 1 percent of global exportswhile today it accounts for more than 11 percent. Exports from ESA, however,have declined from 6 percent in 1960 to 4 percent today.World prices for cotton have been declining mostly as a result of competitionon the supply side, which has driven down production costs; such reductionshave been associated primarily with technological improvements resulting inyield increases from 300 kilograms of lint per hectare in the early 1960s to about700 kilograms of lint per hectare in 2005 (world average). This yield increasereflects the introduction of improved varieties and increased use of irrigationand chemical fertilizers. The spread of genetically modified (GM) seed technologyin developing countries and precision farming in developed countries isexpected to reduce the costs of production even further.More than one-quarter of the area allocated to cotton is currently plantedusing GM varieties, accounting for almost 40 percent of world production. GMcotton in the United States—where it was first introduced in 1996—currentlyaccounts for about 80 percent of the U.S. area allocated to cotton. Other majorGM cotton producers are Argentina (70 percent of its cotton area), Australia(80 percent), China (60 percent), Colombia (35 percent), India (10 percent),Mexico (40 percent), and South Africa (90 percent). 12 Countries at a trial stageinclude Brazil, Burkina Faso (the only SSA country), Israel, Pakistan, andTurkey (Cotton Outlook 2005).Although the past decade has witnessed the expansion of the organic movementin other commodities, cotton has not enjoyed much success. Organic12 BAFFES AND ESTUR