Organization and Performance of Cotton Sectors in Africa: Learning from Reform Experience

Cotton is a rare economic success story in Sub-Saharan Africa. While the continent's share of the world's agricultural trade fell by about half from 1980 to 2005, its share of world cotton exports more than doubled. Cotton is a major source of foreign exchange earnings in more than 15 countries of the continent and is a crucial source of income for millions of rural people.'Organization and Performance of Cotton Sectors in Africa' provides an in-depth comparative analysis of the outcomes of the reforms that have been implemented in Sub-Saharan cotton sectors and of the linkages between sector organization and performance. The book highlights challenges facing cotton sectors in Sub-Saharan Africa and demonstrates how reform in the sectors is the key to sustaining growth, improving competitiveness and reducing rural poverty. It provides national and regional policy makers with a number of recommendations based upon the observable lessons of past reform programs.