Forgetting the serious damage caused by the weather on the crop last season, West African cotton production is set to bounce back, US officials say. Despite the region's top growers abandoning genetically modified seeds, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA)'s bureau in Dakar has forecast rising crops in the main West African cotton growing areas of Burkina Faso, Mali, Cote d'Ivoire, Senegal and Chad. Production across the West African countries was recorded at 1.9m tonnes in 2016-17 up 24 per cent on year-on- year basis with production in Burkina Faso hitting record levels.

The cotton crop is recovering from last season's disappointing phase when production fell 16 per cent year-on-year to 1.6m tons falling short of USDA forecasts. USDA’s Dakar bureau ascribed the drop in production to late rains at the beginning of the season and heavy rains at the end of the season. This situation resulted in decreased cotton yield and seed cotton production in most of the countries, the bureau said. Meanwhile in Burkina Faso, the region's top growing area, the beginning of the 2016-17 cotton planting campaign started well with enough rains. In mid-July, 90 per cent of the area had been sowed. This fiscal, the Burkinabe government expects production to reach 750,000 tons, up from 581,000 tons in 2015-16.

But in Mali, the second-ranked West African growing area, the beginning of the 2016-17 season was quite difficult due to a shortfall of rains leaving numerous dry areas and a delay in sowing schedule. Therefore, Mali is most likely to revise its target to 650,000 tons but the bureau is of the view that seed cotton production may not exceed 600,000.