Format:
1 online resource (112 pages)
ISBN:
9780821371329
Series Statement:
World Bank Working Paper
Content:
Based on comprehensive empirical studies, the paper identifies key reforms and defines strategies to enhance the competitiveness of the cotton sector in West and Central Africa. Lessons learned from the 1990s suggest that transferring public property to private enterprises is not enough, by itself, to put the sector back on a sustainable path. The cotton sector in most West and Central African countries is critical in terms of its contribution to GDP and exports as well as poverty reduction. Until recently, the cotton sector was characterized by a vertically integrated monopolistic structure, whereby all transactions in the chain including, ginning, transportation and input supply were handled by the State Owned cotton company. However during the late 1990s, a number of internal and external factors created the need to reassess the structure of the cotton industries in the region. This assessment revealed that, in this new context, vertically integrated monopolies were too costly to ensure vertical coordination of the cotton supply chain. Areas of improvement are associated with the following three targets: 1- increasing yields to produce larger volumes, 2- reducing cost and increasing the reliability of grading, 3- enhancing sales revenues. The paper explains how these targets can be effectively pursued through sector reforms.
Content:
Contents -- Foreward -- Acknowledgments -- Acronyms and Abbreviations -- Executive Summary -- 1. The Cotton Sector in West and Central Africa: A Success Story with Challenges Ahead -- Why Reform a Growing Sector? -- What Types of Reforms Were Instituted? -- What is the Way Forward? Towards a Competitiveness Approach -- 2. Increasing Yields -- Why Do Seed Cotton Yields Matter? -- What Explains Stagnating Seed Cotton Yields in WCA? -- How Can Technical Practices in WCA be Improved? -- 3. Reducing Post-harvest Costs and Improving Quality -- What are the Main Costs and Risks Borne by Ginners? -- What is the Way to Minimize Risk When Designing Seed Cotton Pricing Schemes? -- How Can the Risks Associated with Transport be Reduced? -- The Need to Improve the Reliability of Quality and Grading -- 4. Enhancing Sales Revenues -- The Challenges of Managing Cotton Price Risk -- Tools for Selling Cotton and the Capacity to Use Them Proactively -- Designing and Implementing a Sales Strategy -- What Can Governments Do to Enhance Sales Revenues? -- 5. Promoting Competitiveness Through Sector Reforms -- Re-structuring Markets -- What Types of Investors are Needed? -- Articulating the Main Steps of the De-regulation Process before Transferring Public Property to Private Investors -- Appendixes -- A. Implications of Cotton Policies -- B. Cotton and the Sixth WTO Ministerial in Hong Kong -- Bibiliography -- LIST OF TABLES -- 1. Cotton's Importance to Cotton-4 (2001-03 Averages) -- 2. Global Balance of the Cotton Market (Thousand Tons) -- 3. Estimated Government Assistance to Cotton Producers, 1997-2004 (US Millions) -- 4. Cost of Equipment in Burkina Faso, 2005/06 -- 5. Input Costs in 2004/05 (CFA Frames) -- 6. Statistical and Tariff Nomenclature of the WAEMU -- 7. Transport Turnaround Time from/to Mali -- 8. Diversification of Cotton Export Routes (percent).
Note:
Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources
Additional Edition:
ISBN 9780821371312
Additional Edition:
Erscheint auch als Druck-Ausgabe ISBN 9780821371312
Additional Edition:
Print version Strategies for Cotton in West and Central Africa : Enhancing Competitiveness in the "Cotton-4
Language:
English
Subjects:
Economics
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