Origin Africa Magazine

Opinion and analysis
Figure 2: Nitrogen use in cotton production (Kilograms per hectare)
Australia
Brazil
Burkina Faso
Source: ICAC, 2012.
Cameroon
Egypt
Islamic Republic
of Iran
kazakhstan
Mali
Pakstan
United Republic
of Tanzaniaia
Turkey
United States
Zambia
Zimbabwe
Industry Regulation
Beginning in the 1980s and continuing
through the 1990s and 2000s,
single-channel monopoly commodity
production and marketing boards
were disbanded across Africa. Some
of the cotton boards were notoriously
inefficient and corrupt, and
were wisely disbanded; others were
efficient and well managed, and
should have been kept. A lesson of
the past two decades, which even
the most ardent advocate of deregulation
would have to acknowledge, is
that a highly regulated cotton sector
in which input supply to farmers is
linked with seed cotton procurement
results in better outcomes than an
unregulated sector.
Cameroon is an example. Producing
an average of more than 500 kilograms
of lint per hectare, it has the
highest national yield in sub-Saharan
Africa, other than South Africa (which
has produced only 10,000 tons of
cotton in recent years). Cameroon
has maintained its single-channel
national cotton company, Société
de Développement du Coton du
Cameroun (SODECOTON), and has
been able to continue supply of inputs
to growers at recommended rates in
order to maintain production levels. In
comparison, in neighboring Chad and
Nigeria, where agronomic conditions
are identical to those in Cameroon but
Likewise, Uganda and Zimbabwe
serve as examples in Southern and
Eastern Africa. While the cotton
zones of these two countries are
separated by about 3,000 kilometers,
the agronomic conditions in
each region are similar. However,
their regulatory histories and governance
situations are very different.
where the national cotton sectors are
less well regulated and supported,
national cotton yields are about 200
kilograms per hectare − less than
half the yield in Cameroon (figure 3).
Yields in Uganda were the lowest
in the world in the 1980s, but have
been trending upwards and are now
among the highest in the region. In
contrast, yields in Zimbabwe have
been trending downwards since the
mid-1990s (figure 4).
JANUARY - MARCH 2016 17