Cameroon, a central African country is facing enormous challenges in cotton sector. The cotton and textile industry in Cameroon is rather fragile and immature owing to a tiny and underdeveloped domestic market. The sector employs obsolete technology. There is no synchronisation between producers and suppliers, made worse by unjust practices in competition and excessive dumping.

Cameroon’s cotton area covers 85,000 sq kms with approximately 2,00,000 cotton producers and a production approaching 2,50,000 tons a year. Over two million people in Cameroon depend in one way or another on the cotton value chain.

Most of the cotton in the country is cultivated in the north by over two lakh producers. But poverty rates here are high and there is a general feeling of insecurity.

Incentives have been set up for investment, funding bodies, upgradation campaigns and a strategy that will work toward enhancing the value of cotton that is produced in the domestic market.

Other attempts to reorganise the sector include increasing production areas and improved mechanisation, intensifying the sustainable management of soil fertility, increasing cotton oil production capacities, promoting cotton fiber and by-products such as refined oil and cattle feed, mulling the creation of a high-quality cotton brand made in Africa.