Cotton production continues to proliferate in Mali and contributes significantly to the country’s economy despite often challenging trading conditions. Mali has recorded its largest cotton production of more than 760,000 tons for the 2021-2022 season. The President of the Transition Assimi Goita, declared the record production figures that place Mali as the top cotton producer on the African continent. According to the government, record production was made possible by maintaining a subsidy on agricultural inputs maintaining a minimal shift in the cost of cotton seen, among other initiatives.
Mali planted a record 795,000 hectares (ha), up 630,000 hectares (382%) from last year’s crop. In addition, the U.S. report explained that “Côte d’Ivoire also planted a record 460,000 ha, while Benin and Burkina Faso each planted more than 600,000 hectares this year.” At the end of the 2019/2020 season, Mali’s cotton production totaled 700,000 tons, up 6.
6 percent from 2018/2019. The volume harvested for the 2019/2020 campaign makes Mali the second consecutive year, the second-largest producer of white gold in Africa behind Benin (714,000 tons). Cotton producers boycotted the 2020/2021 cotton season following a misunderstanding with the authorities over the price of cotton seeds set by the government.
The crop had grown in popularity among farmers since 1995 when the Malian government began actively promoting it as a good cash crop. By 2003, Mali had become Africa’s largest cotton producer, and today, cotton is the country’s main crop and second-largest export, employing around 40% of the rural population.
The significant increase in cotton production is a piece of good news for the country.
