Cameroon's raw cotton production rose 47 percent to 161,900 tonnes during the 2010-11 season and could increase further to 200,000 tonnes this year, according to state firm SODECOTTON, which attributed the boost to new high-yield plant varieties.
"The results were excellent and we're getting back to volumes that we used to see regularly before the 2005-2009 cotton crisis," SODECOTTON deputy head Henri Clavier said on Friday, referring to a slump in global prices. Cameroon has introduced high-yield Irma L 484 and Irma L 457 cotton varieties to some of the nation's plantations with an eye toward boosting volumes, Clavier said, adding farmers were also using better pesticides and fertilisers.
He said SODECOTTON was targeting 185,000 to 200,000 tonnes for the 2011-12 season, but has called on authorities to raise security for growers, some of whom he said were forced at gunpoint last season to sell to Nigerian smugglers.