2023-04-25 14:12:53
Despite the efforts made by the transitional authorities, the CMDT fell far short of expectations for the 2022-2023 cotton campaign. A poor performance of nearly 50%, the consequence of which is the loss of the 1st place occupied by our country in Africa, in the production of cotton. It sounds like the Time.news of an announced cotton crash. More than 35 billion FCFA of subsidy in inputs to guarantee a reconquered first place. Unfortunately, our country will settle for a shameful third place, according to the latest figures reported by several media pending the reaction of the trolls of the CEO of the CMDT instead of an official statement. What explains this counter-performance of the CMDT?
Like a fairy tale that turns into a nightmare for the CMDT, the 2022-2023 cotton campaign is very far from the objectives and ambitions displayed at the start of the campaign. After a record production of more than 700,000 tonnes during the 2021-2022 campaign, our country has just lost two places for the recent campaign. From first place with 750,000 tons, it finds itself in 3rd place after Benin and Burkina Faso, with a production of 390,000 tons. That is a drop of almost half, compared to the previous campaign.
This ranking, which would come from the conclusions of the last meeting of the Regional Program for Integrated Cotton Production in Africa (PR-PICA) of which Mali is a member, held from 12 to 14 in Côte d’Ivoire.
At the level of the CMDT, it is impossible to confirm or deny this news. Since last Sunday, our questions addressed to the Director of Extension, Siaka COULIBALY, have not been answered until the moment we put this article to press.
This result is very far from the expectations of the authorities who had planned tens of billions of FCFA for this sector on which they counted for the maintenance of the national economy in a context of very difficult economic crisis. Since its contribution to GDP is estimated at 15%, according to CMDT data published on its site. And it is the country’s second source of export revenue after gold, again according to the CMDT.
The grotesque lie
Confirmation of these PR-PICA figures would expose the big lie of the CMDT and the denial of reality of its CEO, Nango DEMBELE. Indeed, a few weeks rather against all odds, the CEO instead of officially communicating on the results of the campaign had preferred to go through mercenaries of the pen to try to cover his poor performance. They claimed that the CMDT had made an achievement of 526,000 by pretending that these data had been validated by the PR-PICA during the 36th meeting of its steering committee. Except that nowhere, we find the traces of this meeting for this organization which updates its information on its website.
So the CMDT, whose leader wants to stay in the good graces of the Prince of the day, did she invent these data? Why so many discrepancies between these figures attributed to the PR-PICA and those of the CMDT?
Dr. Nango Dembélé’s problem is not linked to the Jassids nor to the subsequent drop in cotton production that they caused by around 20 to 35% in all the affected countries (Mali, Burkina Faso, Côte d’ Ivoire, Senegal, Togo, Benin, Cameroon and Chad), but a denial of truth and reality and a headlong rush.
The reasons for the poor performance
Unlike other sectors, the CMDT had a challenge to win: to fight to preserve our country’s position as the leading African cotton producer. Apparently, its CEO is scared, and he doesn’t want to admit it, sorry to be fair. In any case, if the CMDT agrees that its production is below that of the 2021-2022 campaign, it says that it does not recognize the ranking of the experts which relegates it to third place.
Indeed, if several reports confirm that the cotton campaign which ended was marked by a massive infestation of ”jassids”, according to several sources, this situation could not be the only reason for the weak result of our country. This situation is brandished as the cause of our country’s poor performance by minimizing the problems related to the supply of inputs, in particular.
According to sources, during the 2022-2023 campaign, a veritable mafia circle was created at CMDT by relegating traditional input suppliers to the background. They preferred suppliers who have little experience in a context where the prices of agricultural inputs have increased on the world market because of the Ukrainian crisis.
Clearly, the input supply chain has been disrupted, according to our sources, by CMDT officials.
Dr. Nango DEMBELE and the CMDT can take comfort because the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), in its report on cotton published on Tuesday, December 7, 2022, estimates that exports will not suffer, the volumes being expected in 6% increase over 2022/23 to 2.30 Mb compared to last year.
BY SIKOU BAH
#reasons #fall #InfoMatin