Better Cotton expands its efforts in West Africa

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Better Cotton COO Lena Staafgard sat alongside Maurel Adonon, representing the Permanent Secretary of the AIC, Luc Abadassi. (Photo provided by Better Cotton)

Cotonou, Benin – Better Cotton, the multi-national cotton sustainability initiative, has launched a new program to support the production of more sustainable cotton in West Africa.

The program in Benin aims to engage more than 200,000 smallholder cotton farmers in order to embed sustainable farming practices, improve livelihoods and help them adapt to the effects of climate change.

“There is incredible appetite for change on the continent and we’ll work with partners new and old to leverage that,” said Lena Staafgard, COO at Better Cotton.

The Interprofessional Cotton Association of Benin (AIC) is serving as a strategic partner for the new program. The AIC manages both farming and cotton ginning bodies and more broadly facilitates relations with the sector’s stakeholders across Benin.

Eustache Kotingan, president at the AIC, formalized the agreement at a signing ceremony today in Cotonou, where both organizations met alongside stakeholders from across the country’s cotton sector.

“The implementation of this program will help our valiant producers strengthen their resilience by introducing more sustainable production practices,” said Kotingan.

Benin is Africa’s second largest cotton producing country after Mali. In the 2022/23 season, it produced and exported more than 580,000 metric tons (MT) of cotton, according to government figures.

Better Cotton’s programs across Africa also include Mozambique, Egypt, Mali and Côte d’Ivoire.