Togo plans to increase cotton production by 60 percent next year, as farmers widen the area under cultivation to take advantage of climbing international prices for the fiber, according to the main growers’ group.

Output will climb to 80,000 metric tons in 2011 from 50,000 tons this year, said Baba Djabakatie, general secretary of the Togolese Cotton Producers’ Federation.

International cotton prices, which have soared 49 percent this year, are “increasing growers’ interest” in planting the fiber, Djabakatie said in an e-mailed response to questions yesterday. Togo, which borders Africa’s top cotton grower Burkina Faso, has been trying to boost output by expanding cultivation and giving farmers a stake in the New Togo Cotton Co., formed last year after the wholly state-owned cotton company was liquidated.

Farmers are able to participate in the management of the new company, said Djabakatie, whose organization encompasses about 300,000 growers and their mainly small-scale farms of two hectares or less.

Togolese farmers will plant “at least” 90,000 hectares (222,394 acres) of cotton next year, an increase over the 60,000 hectares cultivated this year, he said. The price farmers will receive for a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of cotton will be increased to 185 CFA francs ($0.37), from 175 francs, Djabakatie said.