BAMAKO, Mali: Mali has produced the most cotton in its history, with almost 760,000 tons in the 2021-2022 season.
The President of the Transition Assimi Goita announced a record cotton production, placing Mali as Africa’s top cotton producer.
According to the government, record output was made possible by preserving a subsidy on agricultural inputs, as well as other activities such as keeping a minimum change in the cost of cotton.
According to a report released in September 2021 by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), “Mali will be Africa’s leading cotton producer for the 2021/2022 season, followed by Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, and Burkina Faso.”
Mali planted a record 795,000 hectares (ha), up 630,000 hectares (382%) from last year’s crop, the document noted.
The volume harvested for the 2019/2020 campaign, makes Mali for the second consecutive year, the second-largest producer in Africa behind Benin (714,000 tons).
Cotton growers boycotted the 2020/2021 cotton season due to a disagreement with government officials about the cost of cotton seeds.
Finally, according to data from the Malian Textile Development Company, Mali was the continent’s largest cotton producer in 2018, with 725,000 tonnes of cotton seeds produced.
