DAKAR (Reuters) – A tiny green grasshopper-shaped parasite has infested cotton crops across West Africa and slashed output forecasts for the 2022/23 season, industry representatives said.
The insects known as jassids settle under cotton leaves and feed on plant tissue, injecting a toxin that causes leaves to curl downwards and stunts reproductive capacity.
Usually prolific in dry weather, they have spread with unprecedented intensity this year despite above-average rainfall in many parts of West Africa, where most of the continent’s cotton is grown.
Two new species that appear to be more invasive and resistant to pesticides have been detected, said Senegalese textile company SODEFITEX in a recent report.
As a result, cotton producers in Senegal are only expecting to yield 500 kilogrammes per hectare compared to 1.3 tonnes estimated at the start of the season, said the National Federation of Cotton Producers (FNPC).
“If we do not find a stopgap for this scourge it will be the death of cotton, not only in Senegal but also for the region,” FNPC head Hamidou Diao told Reuters this week.
There was no immediate update on the production forecast in top producers Mali, Benin, Burkina Faso and Togo, which together account for around 50% of regional output, according to research firm Mordor Intelligence.
But Mali is seeing a jassid outbreak, an agriculture ministry spokesperson confirmed on Friday without giving further details.
Burkina Faso has also been affected. The parasite appeared earlier than usual this year, in July, catching farmers off guard and attacking early crops that had not yet been sprayed, the SOFITEX report said.
In Ivory Coast, the jassid infestation could reduce cotton output by between 30% and 40% this year, the national cotton and cashew council estimated this week.
Jassids were once seen as a minor pest in Ivory Coast, but they have become an increasing threat in recent years partly due to rainfall pattern changes among other issues, according to a study focused on the Ivorian cotton sector published in the Journal of Experimental Agriculture International in April.
(Reporting by Ngouda Dione in Dakar, Anne Mimault in Ouagadougou, Tiemoko Diallo in Mali, Loucoumane Coulibaly in Abidjan, Amindeh Blaise Atabong in Yaounde; Additional reporting by Alessandra Prentice in Dakar; Writing by Sofia Christensen; Editing by Louise Heavens)
