Back in Mali/Cotton

So I'm back in Mali after an amazing 5 weeks in America.  I got to see tons wonderful family and friends  (not to mention eat lots of Pizza).  I also found out how many of you back home are actively reading my blog, so I will try hard to keep the entertaining and informative entries coming.... Thanks for all the support!

Here is a post about cotton, based on some pictures I took last November, before coming home.

So this is a cotton field near Kissa:

Cotton is one of Mali's biggest cash crops, ie, one of their only ways to make money and develop.  Every spring, all the farmers in Kissa take out loans from CMDT, a Malian cotton company, in order to buy cotton seeds, fertilizer, and pesticides.  In addition to all of the crops they grow to eat, villagers will plant a few hectares of cotton.  Over the course of the rainy season, they will plow the field, lay the cotton seeds individually by hand, scrape at the weeds that grow around the emerging cotton plants, lay fertilizer with their bare hands, and spray pesticides.  Finally, in November, they go out into the fields to collect all the cotton.  It is collected in big piles and weighed.  They then sell the cotton back to the company, pay off their loans, and usually have a few dollars left over.

Here is a hut overflowing with cotton, with my bike as a reference for size:

A hectare of cotton can have a return of about $400 in US dollars, but that can vary a lot, depending on the world cotton prices, and how productive the hectare was.  It is with this money that my villagers buy motorcycles, cellphones, and solar panels, as well as medicine and clothes.  It is hard to estimate how much each individual can make from cotton, since everything is so communal among families.  You are never farming cotton on your fields, with just your money.  Land and labor are shared among siblings, extended families, and village associations.  If I were to give it a per-capita estimation, I would say the average Malian man can farm 3 hectares of cotton, so he makes about $1,200 a year.  With this he must provide for his wive(s), kids, and elderly relatives too old to work.

Transporting the cotton, by hand and by donkey-cart:

There are many issues and problems associated with cotton.  Because the land and labor that goes to growing cotton would otherwise go to growing food, some commentators have blamed the popularity of cotton for Mali's malnutrition problems.  Also, cotton requires a lot of chemical inputs, which can damage the villages soil and water, especially when villagers have no idea have to safely and efficiently used industrial fertilizers and pesticides.  Nevertheless, cotton is one of the major ways Mali can enter the global economy and become a modern, developed nation.

 Weighing the cotton:

Weighing the cotton is a very tense moment for the farmers.  Their yield and the world market price of cotton can vary drastically from year to year, so up until this moment, the farmers aren't really sure how much they will get.  This year was a decent one.

A semi getting filled with already weighed cotton:

The business of cotton can have positive effects for all Malians, beyond just the individual farmers.  For example, the terrible dirt road out of Kissa was repaired by CMDT, the Malian cotton company, so that they could get the cotton out of the countryside more easily and efficiently.

This cotton will go to Bamako, then to a port like Dakar or Abidjan.  From there, it will probably go to some factory somewhere in maybe China or Indonesia, where it will be made into clothes.  Those clothes will likely go to a developed nation like America or Germany, where people like you will buy them.  Someday, they may even return to Mali as second-hand goods!


So now I'm gonna get political real quick.  Let me just say the views I'm expressing here are my own, not those of the Peace Corps (duh).

I've mentioned already that how much Malian farmers earn for their cotton is determined by the price of cotton on the world market.  Well, because the US is also a cotton growing nation, our policies can drastically affect how much Malian farmers make, and how quickly their nation develops.  Currently, America subsidizes our cotton producers, lowering the price of cotton globally.  In 2009, America spent over $2 billion subsidizing our cotton farmers. Because of our subsidies and subsidies in other developed nations, West Africa loses an estimated $191 million each year.

You might respond that well, it is the responsibility of the American government to look out for American interests, and that is exactly what they are doing when they subsidize cotton.  Two responses:

1. Subsidies aren't helping poor American farmers.  Because only large, rich cotton companies can afford to lobby the american government, they're the only ones that receive subsidies.  In fact, 78% of the $2 billion in taxpayer money we spend on cotton goes to only 10% of American cotton farmers.

2.  What the US is doing is actually illegal.  In fact, Brazil, another cotton growing nation with a little more international muscle than Mali, brought the issue before the World Trade Organization.  Now, American taxpayers give $147 million a year to Brazil!

So, what can you do?  Well, at least agricultural subsidies aren't much of a partisan issue.  They are supported and opposed by both Democrats and Republicans.  America's agricultural bill is due to be updated in 2012 ro 2013, and the best thing you can do is support candidates who are anti-subsidies, and encourage your local representatives not to hand out billions of taxpayer money to large agri-corporations.

And finally: Happy Kids Jumping on Fluffy Cotton.

And, yes, I did join them in jumping on the squishy goodness.

Thanks for reading!