African Cotton Research Articles

In-field development of a conceptual crop functioning and management model: A case study on cotton in southern Mali

West African cotton production has increased rapidly in recent years. Cotton is being cropped under new ecological conditions by new cotton-producing farmers, but the cropping techniques recommended by developers have essentially remained the same. Methodologies are needed to generate a broad scope of recommendations on cropping techniques to deal with the increasing diversity concerning farmers and cropping conditions. A conceptual model of a cotton field was developed that approaches a crop field as a biophysical system under the influence of a “technical system” (i.e. the combination of farmers’ practices implemented in the field). The system outputs were restricted to yield and the main yield components. A theoretical model was first designed on the basis of published data and expert knowledge on cotton physiology, local soil–climate conditions and farmers’ practices. It was based on five specific hypotheses on links between technical and biophysical systems. The hypotheses were tested in a local farmers’ network. Thirty “cropping situations” (soil–crop–technique combinations) were selected in farmers’ fields around Katogo village (Mali), a village that had been previously selected for a cotton crop management prototyping program. Homogeneous groups of situations were drawn up on the basis of the dynamics of crop aerial biomass accumulation. They were compared for their management and environment features. The initial conceptual model was then simplified, while taking the measured variability in its components and the sensitivity of the outputs to these components into account. This conceptual model is being evaluated in other villages, where we have partnerships with farmers, in order to develop a version adapted to a broad range of situations.

Advancing the Doha Development Agenda

2005 was unable to capitalise fully on this advance and fell well short of the original goal of setting the terms under which liberalisation would occur. The Hong Kong meeting made some progress in advancing the Doha Development Agenda and hence the pursuit of growth through trade. But much remains to be done, particularly in settling negotiating modalities in agriculture and non-agricultural market access (NAMA) and in putting some flesh onto the bones of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). And where progress was made it was qualified, whether in dealing with the concerns of African cotton producers or in improving market access for the products of the least developed countries. Given the work still to do, it is not guaranteed that new deadlines will be met or that the DDA will be concluded on time. There is much at stake should the momentum of multilateral liberalisation stall. There is a risk of both major opportunities forgone and of systemic strains as discriminatory bilateral and regional deals add distortions to the framework of global trade and investment. Developing countries would be amongst the principal losers. Charting the way ahead will require that trade policy be seen in a broader domestic context which recognises that market opening works best when it is backed by sound macroeconomic policies, flexible labour markets, a culture of competition and strong institutions. Through this lens, trade reform can be promoted as a necessary tool of growth and development rather than as a concession paid to others. The paper first examines what was achieved at Hong Kong and what still remains to be done, before considering why progress under these negotiations is proving so difficult. We then look at the risks that an enfeebled multilateral trading system would entail, both in terms of liberalization opportunities forgone and systemic strains to the framework of trade and investment. Finally, the paper suggests a way forward in realizing the promise of the Doha Development Agenda.

Diffusion du coton génétiquement modifié en Afrique du Sud : des leçons pour l'Afrique Zone Franc.

Si l’utilisation du coton genetiquement modifie (CGM) en Afrique du Sud, depuis 1996-1997, est le plus souvent presentee comme un succes d’adoption d’OGM par les petits paysans de pays en developpement, c’est une presentation qui occulte le fait que la production cotonniere est d’abord celle des fermiers blancs. Le succes du CGM dans ce pays est aussi tout relatif car la production continue a decliner et la part des petits paysans noirs reste toujours aussi faible. Le cas de l’Afrique du Sud montre que la seule introduction d’une technologie nouvelle ne suffit pas pour assurer la progression de la production a l’echelle du pays. Des facteurs d’ordre institutionnel interviennent, mais la focalisation exclusive sur le CGM les occulte. Nos travaux fondes sur une enquete recente mettent en evidence une mauvaise rentabilite dans une annee defavorable sur le plan climatique et institutionnel. Dans des conditions plus favorables, la rentabilite est meilleure, mais avec un risque financier accru. Rares sont les pays de l’Afrique Zone Franc presentant aujourd’hui une stabilite institutionnelle favorable a l’introduction du CGM. Celle-ci necessite preparation notamment pour negocier des conditions economiques favorables de transfert de la biotechnologie et pour une reorganisation de la distribution de semences preservant les interets des paysans. Les difficultes associees a cette preparation mettent en garde contre une adoption precipitee.

A German Alabama in Africa: The Tuskegee Expedition to German Togo and the Transnational Origins of West African Cotton Growers

IN 1900, BOOKER T. WASHINGTON, the founder and principal of Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama, sent three Tuskegee graduates under the leadership of a faculty member to establish an experimental cotton farm in German Togo. One of those graduates, John W. Robinson, founded a cotton school in the German colony in 1904 that trained hundreds of students, recruited from every region of the country, to grow cotton for the European market. German colonial officials required graduates of this school to return to their home districts and continue growing cotton using the methods they had learned, in expectation that their countrymen would choose to imitate them. Between 1901 and 1909, the cotton exported to Europe from Togo improved in quality and increased in quantity by almost sixty-fold. European and American observers praised the German government for employing African American experts to bring the techniques and equipment used by black cotton growers in the post-Reconstruction U.S. South to black peasants in West Africa. This praise for the mobility of technology presupposes an unspoken acceptance of the immobility of the racial category black, the economic category peasant, and the botanical category cotton. The claim by the expedition’s admirers that American techniques were brought to Togo, under the auspices of German authority, to transform Togolese farming also tacitly assumes the stability and independence of nations. Such reified concepts and nationalist categories have long been the stock-intrade of professional historians. From the perspective of the history of any one nation, the Tuskegee expedition to Togo looks like a minor, if widely imitated, program of technical assistance. Such a perspective, however, renders the true dimen-

Pesticide Productivity and Transgenic Cotton Technology: The South African Smallholder Case

This paper empirically investigates how the productivity of pesticide differs in Bt versus non-Bt technology for South African cotton smallholders, and what the implications for pesticide use levels are in the two technologies. This is accomplished by applying a damage control framework to farm-level data from Makhathini flats, KwaZulu-Natal. Contrary to findings elsewhere, notably China, that farmers over-use pesticides and that transgenic technology benefits farmers by enabling large reductions in pesticide use, the econometric evidence here indicates that non-Bt smallholders in South Africa under-use pesticide. Thus, the main potential contribution of the new technology is to enable them to realise lost productivity resulting from under-use. By providing a natural substitute for pesticide, the Bt technology enables the smallholders to circumvent credit and labour constraints associated with pesticide application. Thus, the same technology that greatly reduces pesticide applications but only mildly affects yields, when used by large-scale farmers in China and elsewhere, benefits South-African smallholder farmers primarily via a yield-enhancing effect.

Competition and Coordination in Liberalized African Cotton Market Systems

Private operators now dominate input supply, crop buying and ginning activities in many African cotton sectors. Varying levels of competition are observed, but greater levels of competition are not necessarily associated with better system performance. This paper explores this phenomenon, drawing on the liberalization experience of Ghana, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. While the capacity of the state to support markets remains weak, there may be tradeoffs between the level of competition and the degree of coordination achieved between players within a sector. Different sectoral structures are observed, with a different role for the state appropriate for each.

BT COTTON IN SOUTH AFRICA: ADOPTION AND THE IMPACT ON FARM INCOMES AMONGST SMALL-SCALE AND LARGE SCALE FARMERS

South Africa is one of few developing countries, and the only one in Africa that has adopted genetically modified crops for commercial production. The very impressive adoption rate of insect-resistant cotton in South Africa can be attributed to different benefits enjoyed by adopters. This article focuses on the reasons and effects of Bt cotton adoption by large-scale and small-scale cotton farmers in South Africa and considers the impact of the adoption on yields, cost and profit. In addition the paper also analyses the production efficiency of adopters and non-adopters. Both large-scale and small-scale farmers enjoy financial benefits due to higher yields and despite higher seed costs. In addition, those who adopted the technology appear to be more technically efficient than those who do not adopt—indicating that it is perhaps the better farmers who spot the potential benefits of the Bt cotton seed. Further diverse analysis of the results from the various surveys are underway and promises to deliver interesting results on the various impacts Bt cotton is having on the South African cotton industry.

Deceived by African Cotton: The British Cotton Growing Association and the Demise of the Lancashire Textile Industry

here appears to be a general consensus that colonial incursion into Africa was primarily motivated by the quest for raw materials and markets for imperial manufacturers.' Beneath this consensus, however, lie questions that have been ignored by economic historians: what mechanisms did the British use in the acquisition of raw materials from Africa? Beyond broad generalizations and conjectures, in what specific ways did the British state promote the production of raw materials in Africa? How did the colonized people react to the British quest for raw materials? What kinds of alliances and institutions did the British state foster in the quest for raw materials? The British Cotton Growing Association (BCGA)2 was one of the notable and influential organizations involved in raw material

Biological Variation in the Degree of Polymerization of Cotton Lint Cellulose Produced in South Africa

The SEC-MALLS techniques, together with an alternative method for data treatment, are used to determine actual DP distributions of the cellulose of southern African Acala 1517/70 cotton lint. This alternative approach offers the possibility of exhaustive statistical analyses of acquired data, previously not possible. The results of these analyses show the influence of production area and year on variations in DP distributions of the cellulose of South African cotton lint.

The Italian Background of Capitalist Farming in Ethiopia: The Case of Cotton

The Italian Background ofCapitalist Farming in Ethiopia: The Case ofCotton Haile M. Larebo Clemson University Although Ethiopia's environmental crisis and demographic collapse are as old as the country's known history, recently new elements such as sustained population growth, the power and needs of the everexpanding central state, and the demands of the international economic order have been added to make the situation worse. The territorial expansion of the imperial Ethiopian state that began in the mid-19th century was accompanied by financial and bureaucratic state controls and policies that made the task of surviving climatic extremes a steadily more difficult proposition for many of Ethiopia's farmers and pastoralists .1 We know little about the extent to which Ethiopia's postLiberation planning in agriculture was inspired by the Italian experience . The colonists had laid down a developmental infrastructure and initiated agricultural policies that had the effect of forcing Ethiopia into greater participation in the world economic system. When considered against the background of the country's pre-war under-development, the transformation by the Italians of the Ethiopian agriculture, particularly in areas totally controlled by the regime, was not insignificant. The most resilient feature of the Italian legacy derives from the fact that the rural population took no part in the decision-making process, with the government's agrarian dictates being imposed upon them from above. As a consequence, some of these policies were not only economically unsuccessful in mary respects but they were also resisted by the very people whom they intended to help. It is therefore important to examine the reasons for the implementation and failure of one particu-©Northeast African Studies (ISSN 0740-9133) Vol. 2, No. 1 (New Series) 1995, pp. 31-60 32 32 Haue M. Larebo larly important Italian government agricultural intervention, the development of cotton farming. Cotton farming is one of the agricultural initiatives that has its roots in the Italian period and played an important role in the post-Liberation history of Ethiopian agriculture. Attempts to develop an integrated "Roman world economy" led to the policy of dividing the Ethiopian Empire into sectors to be granted to Italian concessionaires who would have the right to buy and market certain items of Ethiopian produce. This scheme was planned to cover every aspect of the Empire's agricultural life. Owing to the abrupt and sudden end of the occupation, only the scheme for cotton production was implemented. Given its significance to the Italian metropolitan textile industry, cotton production was given great attention. Even though cotton was grown in Southern Italy, Eritrea and Somalia, colonial production was inconsequential. In Somaliland there were flourishing cotton plantations in the restricted regions watered by the Juba river along the banks of the Wabi Shibalé, where two crops, planted in April-June and again in September-October, were harvested annually. There was a government owned ginnery at Vittorio d'Africa, a few mües inland from Merca. But production was insufficient for the needs of Italian industry.2 Following international trade sanctions imposed by the League of Nations in 1935, the Italian policy of self-sufficiency led to a rapid increase in domestic production matched with a small rise in production in the colonies, as reflected in Table 1. Yet the cotton produced in Italy and the colonies amounted to just 5.5 percent of the total needs of the domestic industry. With the sharp decrease in supply (Table 2), the sanctions exposed Italy's vulnerability through dependence on foreign imports. It was estimated that Italy needed to cultivate a minimum of 900,000 ha of land, with an average production of 525 kg of raw cotton per ha to meet domestic needs. The Italians were confident that Ethiopia would produce, within a short term period, good quality cotton to supply the annual needs of the Italian mills.3 The crisis that followed the imposition of sanctions led to the Royal Decree of 7 October 1937, which created a government concern—The Italian African Cotton Company (ECAI), an affiliate of the Italian Cotton Institute (ICI),4 an association of all the Italian cotton industrialists responsible for coordination of cotton production. The agency had a The Italian Background...

Why the Issue of "Relevance" Is Not So Relevant

I think that Professor Baker's article raises some interesting points concerning research methodology and the meaning we attach to some types of empirical data. Unfortunately, she spends rather more time reporting her sampling techniques and general research design, which seem to me to be unexceptionable, than she does in discussing her substantive findings. Briefly put, the article merely states that when rural folk in many less developed countries (LDCs) are asked by means of structured or unstructured interviews as to why they are sending their children to school, they are likely to give a wide range of responses that include a number of answers stressing intrinsic rather than instrumental values.' Other surveys that she refers to also provide a similar array of answers, but my first question must be, Has anyone ever doubted this would be the case? Before proceeding to put the findings in context, let me raise a point concerning Baker's research since I find myself endorsing her findings but have some reservations as to the anthropological tradition of research that gave rise to them. When I conducted my first piece of work in the West African context in 1959, I was firmly wedded to the idea of grassroots participant observation and village studies, which led, in fact, to one of my earliest publications.2 I reasoned at the time that anthropological techniques were the best way of getting at the realities of the educational situation in a largely traditional fishing community. My village survey, indeed, generated valuable basic demographic materials as well as data on lineage structure, but I began to run into trouble when I asked the parents of school-going children why they were sending their offspring to school. In fact, I got much the same spectrum of responses as those depicted in the present article. Some parents clearly saw education as a route to a better life, the latter being defined in a variety of ways, while others tended to talk of the more diffuse benefits of schooling. Interestingly enough, Baker notes that some respondents remark that educated people cannot be cheated so easily, a reaction noted by me some years earlier in conversations with African villagers in northern Uganda. In the latter case, having seen illiterate African cotton farmers regularly cheated by traders, I realized that people indeed understood the value of literacy

Identification of an hemipteran juvenile hormone: In vitro biosynthesis of JH III by Dysdercus fasciatus

AbstractCorpora allata of the African cotton stainer, Dysdercus fasciatus Sign. (Hemiptera: Pyrrhocoridae), produce radiolabeled methyl‐10,11‐epoxy‐3,7,11‐trimethyldodeca‐2E,6E‐dienoate (JH III) when cultured in a medium containing L‐[methyl‐14C] methionine. Similar in vitro studies show JH III biosynthesis by cultured corpora allata of Lygaeid and Pentatomid species. This is the first identification of a juvenile hormone in Hemiptera.

Appropriate research in African cotton

The results of cotton research in Africa are scattered and frequently inconclusive. Different pest control strategies, for example, have been followed in the ex-British and French colonial territories and little account has been taken of the sociological aspects of cotton-growing by peasant farmers. There is now, more than ever, a need for a pan-continental and multi-lingual approach to the problems which surround cotton-growing by the small farmer in tropical Africa.

The geology and geotechnical properties of the black cotton soils of northeastern nigeria

The paper gives a brief review of the geology of the black cotton soils of northeastern Nigeria. Mineralogical analysis shows the soils to be predominantly kaolinite and montmorillonite. Results presented show low strength characteristics; a soaked CBR of only 1.5%, a residual strength parameter Φ r of 12°, and a permeability of 10 −10 cm/sec. The plasticity index decreases from 47% to 5%, linear shrinkage decreases from 11 to 3.6% for an increase in lime content of 0 to 9%, respectively. Results presented indicate that a mixture of both lime and cement is necessary for adequate stabilization of road bases for heavy wheel loads on the black cotton soils of northeastern Nigeria. These results are in general agreement with results previously presented for other African and Indian black cotton soils.

Experimental studies of migration in bugs of the genus Dysdercus.

Using a tethered flight technique, migration was studied in the African cotton stainer bugs Dysdercus fasciatus Sign., D. nigrofasciatus Stål, and D. superstitiosus (F.) (Heteroptera: Pyrrhocoridae). The flight system of males of all three species matures in 4-6 days post-eclosion, and flight can continue throughout life. Fed females of D. fasciatus do not fly, but rather histolyse the flight muscles and develop oocytes. Fed females of D. nigrofasciatus and D. superstitiosus exhibit some flight at 4 days post-eclosion, but flight is essentially absent at 6 days when flight muscle histolysis and oögenesis are in progress. Starved females of all three species undertake considerable flight and do not histolyse the flight muscles or develop oöcytes. In starved pairs coupling frequency is lowered permitting increased migration. The three species are thus facultative migrants using starvation as a releasing cue. D. fasciatus feeds on baobab (Adansonia) fruits which are seasonally abundant and is the most opportunistic species with the highest reproductive potential and no flight in the presence of food. D. nigrofasciatus feeds on a variety of herbaceous annuals and perennials; it follows an intermediate migration and reproductive strategy. Finally D. superstitiosus is the most catholic in its food habits and has the lowest reproductive potential. Both of the latter species retain some flight capacity even when fed, presumably so that individuals can locate suitable host plants.

Some Studies on the Formation and Removal of Fiber Hooks

A study was made of the effect of cylinder-doffer setting in the card on hook formation, and the influence of drafting direction on U-shaped hook removal, regularity of output sliver, and yarn properties. The results show that the U-shaped hooks are present in the card sliver to the extent of about 13-22%. The cylinder-doffer setting influences trailinq hooks in East African cotton. The regularity of card sliver increases with windening of cylinder-doffer setting. The U-shaped hooks are removed to a considerable extent during drafting, but always at a lesser degree than total hooks. The drawing sliver drafted with majority hooks in the trailing way gives more regular output sliver, with respect to both short-term and long-term evenness, than that in the leading way. The yarns spun with majority hooks drafted on ring frame as trailing hooks give higher single-thread strength, compared to those as leading hooks.

Heterosis and combining ability of American and African cotton cultivars in a low latitude under high-yeild conditions

A diallel cross of nine cultivars of Gossypium hirsutum L. (race latifolium), grouped on a basis of origin and staple characteristics into African uplands and American high quality and ordinary quality uplands, was used to examine heterosis and combining ability effects. Heterosis associated with the African cultivars, in combination either with the American cultivars or with each other, at an average of 22 % was approximately double that associated with either American group of cultivars. A number of hybrids significantly outyielded the standard commercial cultivar of the region, Stoneville 7A. The best hybrid yielded 271 kg lint/ha more than Stoneville's yield of 1622 kg lint/ha. This increase was brought about by heterosis in the three yield components: number of bolls, boll weight, and lint percentage. Heterosis was also marked for early height with all groups but was absent or only slight for mature height. No significant heterotic effects were demonstrated for micronaire value or Pressley strength index. Variation due to general combining ability predominated in all traits, particularly for lint yield, number of bolls, boll weight, and mature height. Even when significant, the specific combining ability component of variance was much less than the general combining ability component. All three African cultivars and the ordinary quality American type Stoneville 7A had high general combining ability for lint yield and number of bolls and should be valuable parents for use in a breeding programme. Lint yield in the F1 population was strongly genetically correlated with number of bolls but negatively correlated with boll weight, not associated with lint percentage, and slightly negatively associated with micronaire value and Pressley strength index.

Heliothis armigera . [Distribution map

Abstract A new distribution map is provided for Heliothis armigera [Helicoverpa armigera] (Hb.) (= H. obsoleta auct.) (Lep., Noctuidae) (Old World Bollworm, African Cotton Bollworm). Host Plants: Cotton, tobacco, tomato, polyphagous. Information is given on the geographical distribution in EUROPE (excl. USSR), Albania, Azores, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Rumania, Sicily, Spain, Yugoslavia, ASIA (excl. USSR), Afghanistan, Burma, Cambodia, Ceylon, China, Cocos-Keeling Islands, Cyprus, Hainan, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jammu and Kashmir, Japan, Jordan, Korea, Kuwait, Laos, Lebanon, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippine Islands, Saudi Arabia, Sikkim, Singapore, South Arabian, Protectorates, Syria, Taiwan, Thailand, Tibet, Turkey, Vietnam, Yemen, USSR, AFRICA, Algeria, Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroun, Canary Islands, Cape Verde Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Dahomey, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Lesotho, Libya, Madagascar, Madeira, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Réunion, Rhodesia, Rodriguez Islands, Rwanda, St. Helena, Senegal, Seychelles Islands, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tripoli see Libya., Tunisia, Uganda, Upper Volta, Zambia, AUSTRALASIA and PACIFIC ISLANDS, Australia, Caroline Islands, Fiji, Gilbert Islands, Mariana Islands, Marshall Islands, New Caledonia, New Hebrides, New Zealand, Papua & New Guinea, Phoenix Islands, Western Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Irian Jaya.

Insecticides and the African Cotton Crop

Insecticides and the African Cotton Crop

The control of bacterial blight in rain-grown cotton I. Breeding for resistance in African Upland varieties

Projects carried out in the Lake Province of Tanganyika for breeding Upland cotton resistant to bacterial blight are described.A programme in which Albar 51 was used as resistant parent was more successful than one in which an attempt was made to transfer the major gene B6m to breeding stocks.Backcrossing was found to be of limited value as a breeding technique with rain-grown cotton, line breeding in segregating stocks being preferred.It is demonstrated that resistant types can be synthesized by the systematic exploitation of residual genetic variability in locally adapted populations.Correlations between stem, boll andleaf resistance are discussed and some deviations attributable to environmental effects described. It is inferred that there is a basic resistance mechanism in all tissues which is under the same genetic control but that results may be confused by genotype-environment interactions and by other factors operating in particular tissues.The approach to resistance breeding is discussed in relation to the evolution of resistance in African Upland cotton. It is concluded that improvement by straight selection should be given equal emphasis with improvement by hybridization in resistance breeding programmes.