Moreover, excluding subsidies, the cotton sector is competitive and exports more than 90% of what it produces. However, over the past ten years or so, the huge subsidies granted to producers in the United States (US$ 2.3 billion in 2001/2002), China ($ 1.2 billion in 2001/2002) and Europe ($ 700 million per year) have driven down cotton fibre prices. The price per kg dropped from $ 2.53 in 1995 to $ 0.82 in 2001.
To counter this fall, Mali adopted a reform in January 2005 of the mechanism for determining the price paid to seed cotton producers. The new agreement was a radical step: the basic price is now linked to the world market price, rather than to production costs. The purchasing price per kg of “grade one” cotton fell from CFAF 210 in 2004 to between CFAF 160 and 175 in 2005. Moreover, the minimum price system is no longer guaranteed. What will be the short- and medium-term consequences of the reform for producers and the Malian cotton commodity chain as a whole? To answer that question, CIRAD conducted a field study in the Malian cotton-growing zone, funded by the NGO OXFAM. The results speak for themselves.
On a microeconomic level, applying the new purchasing price will undoubtedly result in a negative margin for producers. In effect, the price will generally not be sufficient to cover seed cotton production costs. Moreover, given that the new price mechanism will result in a drop in incomes among cotton producers (around CFAF 30 billion) and rural populations, it will probably exacerbate poverty in Mali.
On a macroeconomic level, the likely loss for the Malian economy as a whole will be between CFAF 62.32 and 136.5 billion, corresponding to a drop of between 1.86 and 3.9% in the country’s GDP. Moreover, the new mechanism has been introduced at a time when the commodity chain is also suffering from major difficulties linked to the Compagnie malienne de développement textile’s financial problems, while input costs are rising and yields are falling in the cotton-growing zone. This is compounded by the fall in export revenue and in incomes among cotton producers as a result of the price slump.
These various points raise another, broader issue: are the Millennium Development Goals initiated by the United Nations and the Doha agenda* being implemented under the World Trade Organization coherent and above all compatible? Achieving the Millennium Development Goals, particularly a 50% reduction in global poverty by 2015, means implementing determined public policies that are mostly out of step with the increasing liberalization imposed under the Doha Round.
Kako Nubukpo | alfa
Further information:
http://www.cirad.fr/en/actualite/communique.php?id=382
Faba fix for corn's nitrogen need
11.04.2018 | American Society of Agronomy
Wheat research discovery yields genetic secrets that could shape future crops
09.04.2018 | John Innes Centre
Physicists at the Laboratory for Attosecond Physics, which is jointly run by Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität and the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, have developed a high-power laser system that generates ultrashort pulses of light covering a large share of the mid-infrared spectrum. The researchers envisage a wide range of applications for the technology – in the early diagnosis of cancer, for instance.
Molecules are the building blocks of life. Like all other organisms, we are made of them. They control our biorhythm, and they can also reflect our state of...
University of Connecticut researchers have created a biodegradable composite made of silk fibers that can be used to repair broken load-bearing bones without the complications sometimes presented by other materials.
Repairing major load-bearing bones such as those in the leg can be a long and uncomfortable process.
Study published in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces is the outcome of an international effort that included teams from Dresden and Berlin in Germany, and the US.
Scientists at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) together with colleagues from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) and the University of Virginia...
Novel highly efficient and brilliant gamma-ray source: Based on model calculations, physicists of the Max PIanck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg propose a novel method for an efficient high-brilliance gamma-ray source. A giant collimated gamma-ray pulse is generated from the interaction of a dense ultra-relativistic electron beam with a thin solid conductor. Energetic gamma-rays are copiously produced as the electron beam splits into filaments while propagating across the conductor. The resulting gamma-ray energy and flux enable novel experiments in nuclear and fundamental physics.
The typical wavelength of light interacting with an object of the microcosm scales with the size of this object. For atoms, this ranges from visible light to...
Stable joint cartilage can be produced from adult stem cells originating from bone marrow. This is made possible by inducing specific molecular processes occurring during embryonic cartilage formation, as researchers from the University and University Hospital of Basel report in the scientific journal PNAS.
Certain mesenchymal stem/stromal cells from the bone marrow of adults are considered extremely promising for skeletal tissue regeneration. These adult stem...
Anzeige
Anzeige
Invitation to the upcoming "Current Topics in Bioinformatics: Big Data in Genomics and Medicine"
13.04.2018 | Event News
Unique scope of UV LED technologies and applications presented in Berlin: ICULTA-2018
12.04.2018 | Event News
IWOLIA: A conference bringing together German Industrie 4.0 and French Industrie du Futur
09.04.2018 | Event News
Structured light and nanomaterials open new ways to tailor light at the nanoscale
23.04.2018 | Physics and Astronomy
On the shape of the 'petal' for the dissipation curve
23.04.2018 | Physics and Astronomy
Clean and Efficient – Fraunhofer ISE Presents Hydrogen Technologies at the HANNOVER MESSE 2018
23.04.2018 | Trade Fair News