Cameroon Plans to Increase Cotton Output 35% Using Higher-Yielding Strains

Cameroon may increase cotton output by as much as 35 percent this season by using higher yielding strains and improving agricultural techniques, according to Sodecoton, the state-owned producer.

“We intend to produce at least 39,000 metric tons more of the crop,” Ibrahim Ngamie, director of agricultural production, said in an interview today in the capital, Yaounde. That would boost output of the fiber to about 150,000 tons, up from 111,000 tons last year, he said.

Cotton, mostly grown by about 227,500 small-scale farmers in the north of the country, is Cameroon’s fifth-largest foreign exchange earner, according to the government. The West African nation plans to boost output by reorganizing the industry, training farmers and increasing the use of more resistant and higher-yielding crop strains.

Cameroon’s annual output four years ago was nearer 300,000 tons, according to Iya Mohammed, Sodecoton’s general manager.

Sodecoton, Cameroon’s only cotton company, is 59 percent- owned by the government, while the rest is held by the Compagnie Francaise de Developement du Textile.

(Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-25/cameroon-plans-to-increase-cotton-output-35-using-higher-yielding-strains.html)