BAMAKO: A lack of rain threatens to prevent Mali reaching its cotton production target of 650,000 tonnes in the 2016/17 season, the state-owned Malian Company for the Development of Textile (CMDT) said on Wednesday. "We are facing a rainfall deficit.
June is usually a good month for the seedlings but it's not raining as it should: at this date only 47 percent of the seedlings have been produced," Ousmane Cisse, CDT's main agriculture advisor, said.
"The situation is difficult but there is some hope. We believe that if the rains arrive by the end of June, the situation is recoverable," he added. West Africa's biggest cotton producer has had difficulty meeting its harvest goals before.
Last season's crop of 513,553 tonnes was far less than the 650,000-tonne target, also because of damage linked to late arrival of the rain. The cotton harvest in Mali runs from April to April.
Production begins in May-June and ends in September-October. Commercialisation starts in October-November and ends at the end of March.
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