Burkina Faso cotton output due to poor weather down by 18pc

Burkina Faso a landlocked country in West Africa in the recently ended 2015/16 season produced 581,000 tonnes of raw cotton, however down 18 percent from the previous harvest and well short of its aim of a record crop of 800,000 tonnes, said the national cotton association on Friday.

The drop in output was due to poor weather conditions also the Seasonal rains arrived late. There were long dry spells at critical times but also flooding during other periods when the rains were too abundant, said the Inter-professional Cotton Association of Burkina (AICB), which groups together the country’s three cotton companies and the national cotton farmers union (UNPCB).

The AICB’s secretary general Georges Yameogo said that cotton is the second-biggest source of revenue for the impoverished West African nation after gold. Its cotton season runs from May to February, and it produced 707,000 tonnes of raw cotton during the 2014/15 harvest.

The AICB announced on Friday a farmer price of 235 CFA francs ($0.4059) per kilogramme for the 2016/17 season. It meanwhile said that the government and cotton companies would offer subsidies worth 13.5 billion CFA francs to help pay for fertiliser and pesticides at a time when Burkina is weaning itself off of genetically modified cotton.

The Cotton association this month is seeking 48.3 billion CFA francs in compensation from US seed company Monsanto as GM cotton led to a drop in quality. They have also urged farmers to stop using GM seeds until the technology is improved.