Climate change, especially erratic rainfall, is a threat to cotton production, the foundation of the entire textiles value chain, in Africa. But a range of novel solutions offer hope for the sector to not only survive but thrive, writes Ben Payton .
Economists have long argued that the route to prosperity for Africa must involve building a thriving textiles industry. Indeed, Africa has a clear blueprint from South and East Asia that it can follow in using garment manufacturing as a way to create jobs and stimulate industrial growth.
Several African countries have already been relatively successful in establishing themselves as players in the global textile manufacturing industry – the likes of Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar and Mauritius have used preferential trade arrangements under the US African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) to become significant garment exporters.
And Africa has a key advantage in that large parts of the continent have a suitable climate for growing cotton, the key raw material that goes into the T-shirts, jeans and jackets worn around the world. Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali are the top African producers, but the ‘white gold’ is grown in a total of 37 African countries, meaning Africa has more cotton-growing countries than any other continent.
However, there are ominous signs that Africa’s cotton and textiles ambitions could come unstitched as a result of climate change. Increasingly frequent and more severe droughts are making it more difficult to grow cotton across several of Africa’s leading producer countries. Togo, for example, suffered a 66% decline in production between 2019 and 2023, largely due to erratic weather and pest outbreaks.
“Climate change represents a severe and growing challenge for smallholder cotton production in sub-Saharan Africa,” says Alexandra Perschau, head of Cotton Standards at the non-profit Aid by Trade Foundation.
“Because almost all African cotton is grown using rain-fed agricultural systems, small-scale farmers are uniquely vulnerable to changing weather patterns.”
Not only is unpredictable rainfall disrupting crop yields, she says, but the changing climate is causing pest behaviour to change, putting African cotton growers at greater risk of devastating infestations.
With a major El Niño event on the way, and unmistakable signs that longer-term rainfall patterns are becoming less predictable, Africa’s cotton growers face an uncertain future.
Climate impacts
Concern over climate impacts on cotton has been building for several years. According to research commissioned by the multi-stakeholder Cotton 2040 initiative, rising temperatures, shifting rainfall patterns and growing water scarcity will pose a severe threat to half of the world’s cotton-growing regions by 2040.
It warns that the growing season is likely to become shorter because of temperature extremes in Mali, Senegal, Burkina Faso and Ghana (although the growing season in some parts of central and southern Africa will become longer).
Worsening droughts will pose major hazards across the Sahel belt, while Egypt and Sudan are projected to receive less than the minimum rainfall required to produce cotton with rain-fed methods.
Conversely, several parts of Africa, including coastal regions in both the west and east of the continent, are expected to receive increased rainfall, causing waterlogged soils that damage cotton production.
Reacting to these findings in 2021, Kai Hughes, then-executive director of the International Cotton Advisory Council, described the cotton sector as “unprepared for the climate crisis,” warning that “many of the pre-existing vulnerabilities and inequalities in its supply chains are likely to be intensified and accelerated.”
To irrigate, or not?
Given that the dependence on rain-fed growing methods is increasing the impact of drought in Africa’s cotton-producing regions, the obvious solution would appear to be to turn to artificial methods of storing and utilising water.
Koussouwè Kourouféi, president of the Association of African Cotton Producers, a lobby group for smallholder farmers, said last year that rain-fed agriculture was increasingly unsustainable. “Climate change is affecting production, and we believe the solution is to move towards irrigation and grow cotton in the off-season.”
The World Bank is also a major advocate for investing in irrigation as a way to support cotton growers and other crop producers in drought-prone countries. Funding for improved irrigation is a key component of a $215m project announced in March to strengthen agriculture in Burkina Faso, one of Africa’s traditional cotton giants.
A previous programme run by various World Bank agencies along with local cotton buyer SOFITEX in Burkina Faso reports that it achieved a 23% increase in yields among farmers who received assistance to improve irrigation.
While irrigation has historically relied on major dams that divert rivers, and on diesel-powered pumps, more sustainable solutions are increasingly coming into view. Several companies are working to scale up solar-powered irrigation pumps in Africa, although the upfront cost of this equipment remains problematic.
Yet there is a fierce debate about whether irrigation really is the answer.
The Aid by Trade Foundation runs the Cotton Made in Africa (CmiA) certification scheme, which is designed to link fashion brands with smallholder cotton producers that use sustainable methods. Perschau tells New African that artificial irrigation from surface or groundwater sources is “strictly prohibited” under the CmiA.
“This is because operating irrigation pumps leads to high energy costs, depletes aquifers and causes soil salinisation,” she says. The ban on irrigation “protects precious water resources,” Perschau adds, noting CmiA-certified farmers typically use just two litres of water per kilogramme of cotton – an astonishingly low figure compared to the global average of 1,500 to 2,100 litres.
Perschau argues there are better ways for cotton growers to increase the water-holding capacity of the soil. One option, she says, is to use biochar, a charcoal-like substance that boosts soil health. Cover cropping can also help to reduce evaporation, she adds.
“African cotton growers can build resilience against climate change by adopting sustainable and regenerative practices,” says Perschau, who points out that using local resources and tapping into local knowledge will also help “reduce dependency on imported fertilisers and pesticides.”
Facing the future
The International Trade Centre, a Geneva-based multilateral agency, is another advocate of using biochar as a climate-friendly solution to boost cotton yields.
A spokesperson for the ITC told New African that it had seen “astounding results” from a programme in Tanzania and Zambia, in which farmers use the stalks from cotton plants – traditionally seen as a waste product that is burned after harvesting – to produce biochar.
“The biochar reduces soil acidity and also keeps moisture longer in the soil. Together with the natural fertiliser of bokashi, the pilot farmers in both countries almost doubled their yields, with some even tripling their productivity. Applied country-wide, that could change the entire cotton sector and as such the attractiveness for textile investments.”
The spokesperson added that the low environmental footprint of Africa’s cotton could become a “competitive advantage” that will help the continent build its textiles sector.
While there is no doubt that climate change will pose a severe challenge for cotton in Africa, the snapshots of success achieved through simple technologies and improved growing methods show that all is not lost.
Indeed, despite challenges from climate change in almost all major cotton-producing countries, the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation projects that yields in 2035 will be 15% higher than today. This optimistic view is based on new technologies, including smart irrigation systems to help manage water use, as well as drones and satellites that enable improved monitoring of plant health. n
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African cotton’s resilience against erratic weather
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