Mali's cotton production over 760,000 tonnes for 2021-2022 season

Mali has recorded its highest cotton production of more than 760,000 tonnes for the 2021-2022 season, its interim President Assimi Goita announced recently. The transition government said the record production was made possible through a subsidy on agricultural inputs, maintaining a minimal shift in the cost of cotton, among other initiatives.

The US department of agriculture (USDA) had in September last year indicated that Mali will be the largest cotton producer in Africa for the 2021-2022 season, followed by Benin, Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso.

Mali planted a record 795,000 hectares (ha), up by 630,000 ha (382 per cent) from last year's crop, the USDA document noted.

Ivory Coast also planted a record 460,000 ha , while Benin and Burkina Faso each planted more than 600,000 ha this year.

At the end of the 2019-2020 season, Mali's cotton production totaled 700,000 tonnes, up by 6.6 per cent from 2018-2019, a global newswire reported.