Mali has regained its position as Africa’s leading cotton producer for the 2023-2024 season, with 690,000 tonnes, ahead of Benin with 553,000 tonnes.
This was announced by the CEO of the Compagnie Malienne pour le Développement du Textile (CMDT), which manages Mali’s cotton industry, Dr. Nango Dembélé, at a meeting in Bamako of African cotton-producing countries, which ended last week in the Malian capital, a good source told PANA.
Mali lost first place as a cotton-producing country just one year ago, when it produced just over 300,000 tonnes of seed cotton.
According to Dr. Dembélé, this result, even though the initial forecasts were for around 700,000 tonnes, is salutary in view of what has been achieved in other countries.
He explained that the results of the research had benefited CMDT, which had been able to combat insects harmful to cotton growing.
During the 2022-2023 season, massive attacks by a new species of jassid caused economic and psychological damage.
“As we recall, jassids caused the loss of around 50% of cotton production in the 8 member countries during the 2022-2023 season.
Last Wednesday, eight African cotton-producing countries met in Bamako to examine the results of the 2023-2024 season and the ways and means of increasing cotton production in Burkina Faso, Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Senegal, Togo, Cameroon and Chad.
