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The article discusses the debate on poverty in the cotton sector of southern Mali, demonstrates how the cotton industry's expansion created spatial inequalities, and examines the economic and social effects of the cotton crisis and government policy since the 2000s. Topics include the economic conditions of the rural population at the beginning of the 2000s, debates concerning the poverty level in the region of Sikasso (Mali), and inequalities regarding social status and access to land.

The article discusses some of the issues the cotton industry in Mali faces since the 1980s. It examines the debate concerning the effects of the partial decentralization of this industry, demonstrates the importance of cotton exploitation in the country's rural sector, and presents the evolution of public policy and reforms to make this industry sustainable. Data collected on circa a hundred cotton farmers in southern Mali is examined. The concept of poverty trap is also discussed.

Summary: Like many other African countries in the early 1990s, Burkina Faso was urged to engage in a far-reaching liberalization of its state-led cotton sector. Instead it engaged in more gradual and sequenced reforms characterized by institutional innovations and partial privatization. But while the reforms coincided with a threefold increase in cotton exports in the space of a decade, there is heated debate about whether the reforms truly induced sustainable growth. In addition to reviewing existing evidence, this paper develops a counterfactual analysis to more rigorously assess the reform’s impacts after accounting for the confounding influence of exogenous shocks and centrally administered farmgate prices. The paper shows that while many elements of the reform process did achieve important economic objectives, return migration from Côte d’Ivoire explains around a third of production growth, financial elements of the reforms were not fully sustainable, and institutional arrangements failed to fully empower cotton farmers. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This article analyses the performance of cotton sectors across East, Southern, and West Africa, paying particular attention to the wide diversity of institutional arrangements that they now exhibit. It finds strong support for earlier contentions regarding trade-offs between competition and coordination, and between the roles of public and private sectors. New insights provide concrete and context-specific guidance to policy-makers and stakeholders regarding the key challenges they will face and the risks they will need to manage as they work to improve productivity and ensure an equitable division of benefits within cotton sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The trade ties between Italy and Eritrea is important for both countries. This paper analyzes the extents and characteristics of regional trade relationship between Eritrea and Italy. Attention is given to the regions and products where there is high potential for export and import. Other socioeconomic opportunities, which may give rise to the trade link between the two countries, are also mentioned briefly. The main aim is Eritrea a former Italian colony can be a springboard for Italy to expand its commercial activities to other Italian colony in the horn of Africa. It can be an opener of the market in Italy with all Italian and non-Italian colonies in the horn of Africa. Eritrea has become an Italian trade associate especially in terms of cotton cement and other commodities. Unlike Eritrean exports, trade imports from Italy have been progressing rapidly. Lack of demand for import machineries and transport equipment may be the main cause for the reduction of exports to Eritrea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of this study is to derive a method suitable for producing a land cover map of southern hemisphere Africa at a spatial resolution of 1 km. Daily SPOT-Vegetation images from the year 2000 were used to build a dataset of monthly composite images. The composites were used in the development of two different classifiers obtained through the induction of classification trees. The selection of image data for training the classifiers and for accuracy assessment was supported by maps at several different scales, expert knowledge, Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery, and a preliminary unsupervised classification of the monthly image composites. One classification is based on the construction and application of a single tree classifier, and a second classification relies on the construction and application of an ensemble of tree classifiers using bootstrap aggregation (bagging). Classification accuracy was assessed using a validation dataset. The ensemble of trees produced better results than the single tree classifier. The advantages and limitations of the methods used are discussed, and suggestions for future work presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Private operators now dominate input supply, crop buying and ginning activities in many African cotton sectors. Varying levels of competition are observed, but greater levels of competition are not necessarily associated with better system performance. This paper explores this phenomenon, drawing on the liberalization experience of Ghana, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. While the capacity of the state to support markets remains weak, there may be tradeoffs between the level of competition and the degree of coordination achieved between players within a sector. Different sectoral structures are observed, with a different role for the state appropriate for each. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article reports on the trends in the cotton trade in Mozambique in 2014, focusing on the remarks by Norberto Mahalambe, national director of the Mozambique Cotton Institute (IAM) in Namialo, Nampula province that the production of raw cotton in the country will grow to 200,000 tonnes in 2020. Meanwhile, cotton output in Zimbabwe declines to a four-year low in 2013-2014 season as farmers continue to shift from the crop to better rewarding crops like tobacco.

An abstract of the article "Cotton crisis, public policies and spatial inegalities in south of Mali" by Jean-Étienne Bidou, Bourema Ballo, and Isabelle Droy is presented.

An abstract of the article "The Political Economy of the Reform of the Cotton Sector of Western and Central Africa: Towards the Convergence of the Modes of Organization?" by Kako Nubukpo is presented on the perennisation of African cotton producers.

The article discusses the benefits of "Cotton made in Africa (CmiA)," a new project started by Germany-based Aid by Trade Foundation. CmiA aims to make cotton production worthwhile for African smallholder farmers and investors by improving production quality and facilitating access to competitive markets. German entrepreneur doctor Michael Otto notes that CmiA is innovative because it activates market forces and establishes a win-win situation to all people in the production chain.

The article reports that African cotton farmers will be affected by the collapse of international negotiations over farm aid. According to the article African cotton farmers are hoping for a big cut in U.S. cotton subsidies past of the Doha deal. It adds that about 10 million people in West Africa depend on cotton for their livelihoods.

The article offers news briefs related to the loans approved by the African Development Bank (ADB). The African Development Fund (ADF) has approved a $66.15 million loan to finance the road development project in the South West Province of Cameroon. A grant of $3.9 million has been approved by the ADF to finance the improvement project in Congo. ADF has approved $51.9 million in development assistance to the cotton sector in several African countries like Benin and Chad.

Reports on filmmakers, artists, and musicians' pledge to support African cotton farmers' struggle for a fairer trade with western countries during the Festival Panafricain du Cinema de Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso. Actions taken by some singers for the benefit of the African cotton industry; Losses incurred by African cotton farmers between 2001 and 2003.

Reports on the impact to African cotton producers of the plans of other countries to subsidize their cotton growers. Economic and social impact of the plans; Subsidies provided by the U.S. to its cotton growers; African countries that filed complaints to the World Trade Organization concerning the subsidies.

The article comments on several issues relevant to world politics and economics in 1898. Key issues discussed include the action of the Ohio legislature on the matter of the election of Senator Hanna in the U.S., the depression suffered by the cotton industry of New England and the divided attention of Europe towards Africa and Asia.