page_title: Agriculture in Benin
section_title: Cotton
hierarchical_section_title: Agriculture in Benin / Production / Commercial crops / Cotton
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Le coton se transporte This is an image of "African people at work" from Benin
context_page_description: Benin is predominantly a rural society, and agriculture in Benin supports more than 70% of the population. Agriculture contributes around 35% of the country's gross domestic product and 80% of export income. While the Government of Benin aims to diversify its agricultural production, Benin remains underdeveloped, and its economy is underpinned by subsistence agriculture. Approximately 93% of total agricultural production goes into food production. The proportion of the population living in poverty is about 35.2%, with more rural households in poverty than urban households. 36% of households depend solely upon agricultural production for income, and another 30% depend on crop production, livestock, or fishing for income.
  Cotton is the principal cash crop and accounts for 70% of export earnings. Cotton is mostly exported as bales with only 3% of total production processed locally, making the country heavily dependent on world cotton prices. Cashews, shea nuts and shea butter, pineapples, palm products, and some cocoa and coffee also are export crops.
context_section_description: Cotton accounted for nearly 40% of GDP and roughly 80% of official export receipts as of 2014, and so cotton exports are vital to Benin's economy and an integral part of the country's development plans and poverty reduction strategies. Cotton seed production is concentrated in the north and center of Benin in an area known as the cotton belt. About two thirds of the farmers of Borgou department grow cotton, 37% of those in Atacora department and 64% of those in the central department of Zou. By contrast, in the three departments in the south (Atlantique, Mono, and Ouémé), the percentage ranges from zero to 25%. Cotton is grown by small-scale farmers and sold to ginning companies, which transform it into cotton lint and/or produce other by products such as cotton seed, cake, and oil.
  After rising to become one of the 20 leading global producers of cotton lint between 2004 and 2006, Benin experienced a sharp fall in production and exports in the early to mid-2000s. For example, 2010/2011 production was less than one third of the installed ginning capacity of 620,000 tons. Likewise, production of cotton lint was less than half of the level recorded in 2004/2005. Cotton production forecasts are often missed because of unpredictable weather (rains). 
  Until June 2012, the Association Interprofessionel du Cotton (AIC) was responsible for coordinating marketing of inputs and seed cotton, facilitating financial and economic claims among the key stakeholders, and was the main importer and distributor of cotton insecticides. However, in mid-2013 the GOB removed AIC from its critical role and established a new sector framework, Cadre Institutionnel Transitoire de Gestion de la Filiere Cotton, to set guidelines for a new management framework to revive the cotton industry, including defining new terms for public-private partnerships.
  The GOB's attempt to revitalize the cotton sector included making sure that producers/farmers are fully paid for the previous year's crop, consolidating farmer's organizations, creating village cooperatives, providing capacity building to small producers, and fortifying input committees. The GOB also inserted itself into the processing of cotton fibers, by paying ginners a fixed fee of 50 CFA per kilogram for processing (ginners wanted twice that amount—they previously handled all exports), and took over the export of cotton and cotton seeds. This disrupted normal practices within the ginning industry.
  Benin's production recovered in the late 2010s, with Benin leading West Africa's franc zone in cotton production in the 2018/2019 and 2019/2020 seasons.
caption: Transportation of cotton in Benin
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