Economic and social importance of cotton production and trade in West Africa: Role of cotton in livelihoods, national & regional development and trade

Cotton plays an important part in West Africa’s development. Between 1-2 million households produce cotton in West Africa, up to 16 million people are involved in cotton production in some way and West and Central Africa taken together are the world’s 2nd largest exporters of cotton after the United States. Since 2003 and the stalemate at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Cancun Ministerial meeting, West African cotton has become a priority issue in the “Doha Round” of international trade negotiations. At the Cancun Ministerial meeting Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali and Chad) requested that price-distorting northern subsidies to cotton producers be eliminated and compensation be provided to countries that have suffered from price falls which have put West African cotton at the top of the international agenda. While subsidies in the North are only one cause of lower cotton prices, this request was related to sustained increases in cotton production worldwide, accompanied by a trend of falling cotton prices in international markets over the last 10 years. This has had serious impacts on key West African economies dependent on foreign exchange from cotton revenues, on small farmer incomes in West Africa and ultimately on the wider process of agricultural transformation.