This archive report was first published on 13 January 2020.
Heavy rains that pounded Uganda and the wider east African region in the third quarter of 2019 are expected to slash the country's 2019/2020 cotton output by a third, state-run sector regulator Cotton Development Organisation (CDO) said on January 13, 2020.
Uganda's cotton crop is a major cash crop, alongside coffee and tea, and a vital source of foreign exchange. However, the intense and relentless rains, which started in late August 2019, triggered widespread flooding, landslides, and displacement of tens of thousands of people.
According to Douglas Bhosopo, a senior official at CDO, the rains made the soils over-moisturised, making it difficult for the plants to extract nutrients. 'The rooting system cannot extract nutrients because there's so much moisture...the (cotton) bolls become small because the plant cannot sustain the flowers,' Bhosopo told Reuters.
He added that the ceaseless rains also made it difficult to spray the crops to ward off pests and diseases, as the chemicals were washed down before they had any effect. The extremely wet conditions also allowed weeds to grow fast and become taller than the cotton plants, choking off much-needed aeration around them.
Uganda's cotton is mostly grown by small-holder farmers in the country's east and northern regions and is highly favoured for its organic quality. The country was once a major African producer of the fibre but the sector declined sharply due to a mixture of political upheaval, competition from food crops, and government neglect.
