BAMAKO, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Mali is on track to harvest a record 2018/19 cotton crop of 750,000 tonnes, the head of the Chamber of Agriculture (APCAM) said on Monday, owing to better than expected rainfall.
It was an increase of 2.7 percent on the roughly 730,000 tonnes produced last season, making it now Africa’s first-biggest cotton producer, as Burkina Faso has seen declines linked to problems with genetically modified crops.
“Rainfall was good, it even caused flooding in some places, but the yield per hectare was better this year,” APCAM’s Bakary Togola said. “I am myself a cotton producer, I can tell you the yield is excellent.”
Mali’s cotton season runs from April to March in two phases: production between May/June and September/October, and a harvesting and marketing phase that runs from October/November to the end of March.
(Reporting by Tiemoko Diallo; Writing by Juliette Jabkhiro; Editing by Tim Cocks)