COTTON AGRICULTURE
creating a cotton moduleCotton needs lots of sun, a long hot summer and a fair amount of water to grow. It does well in dry climates and rich soils but does not do well in a climates that are too cold or too wet and requires 20 tons of water per day per acre (about the same amount of water as wheat) and needs a growing season of 200 frost-free days. Cotton depletes nutrients in the soil quickly and is often rotated with other crops. Because it needs a lot of sun and water it is often grown in hot, dry places with water supplied by irrigation. The average yield is around 600 pounds of cotton per acre.
Cotton-growing methods vary from region to region. In many developing countries the work is still done mainly by hand. The fields are plowed with horse or mules or some other animal and seeds are usually planted in rows at a depth of about one or two inches deep. In the developed world, cotton is grown in vast fields and is mechanically planted, cultivated and harvested. Fields are sprayed with fertilizers and pesticides with helicopters and planes.
With cotton there is a strong risk of loss due to pest such as the boll weevil. Cotton has traditionally been grown with lots off fertilizers, pesticides and even defoliates (power Agent-Orange-like chemical that get rid of leaves and make it easier to pick cotton). Many of the problems that developed from DDT in the 1950s and 60s resulted from spraying huge amounts of it by plane on cotton crops.
Cotton is still picked by hand in many parts of the world. One reason for this is so the plants can be harvested several times as the bolls mature at different rates. Bolls on a single plant often ripen at different times. To speed up the ripening process sometimes farmers use chemical that defoliate the plant.
At harvest time the cotton plants are usually three to four feet high. Pickers wander through the fields with bags and pick the cotton either by "hand snapping" the entire boll, yielding cotton along with the husk and other stuff, or plucking the cotton from the boll. Skilled pickers can pick between 200 and 300 pounds of cotton a day. It is backbreaking work often done for little money. At the end of the day the hands of pickers are covered in cuts and scratches. Mechanical harvesting is done by two machines: a picker which pulls the bolls from the plant and stripper that slices the bolls and many of the leaves from the stalk.
Cotton Pests
cotton harvest Cotton is vulnerable to attacks by pests like boll weevils, a beetle with along nose-like appendage indigenous to the Gulf Coast area of Veracruz, Mexico where it has traditionally eaten a plant belonging to the cotton family called “Hampra” . These insects caused a great amount of destruction in the United States, arriving in Texas in 1894, spreading across much the American South by 1920and devastated that area until it the 1950s when it began to be successfully brought under control with insecticides such as DDT.
An early report of the insects destructive powers sent by a farmer from Texas to Washington read: “The ‘Top’ crop of cotton of this section has been very much damaged and in some cases almost entirely destroyed by a peculiar weevil or bug which by some means destroys the squares of the small bolls. Our farmer can combat the cotton worm but are at loss to know what to do to overcome this pest.”
With their long snout boll weevils pierce the flower buds or “squares” and eat the pollen inside. They also puncture the immature fruit of “bolls” and consume the developing cotton inside. But most destructively, the female drills deep inside the bolls and squares and deposits eggs. These hatch, releasing larvae that eat the plant’s reproductive structure, causing more damage to the squares and bolls. By the time they are finished a cotton field can be as much as 80 percent destroyed.
Boll weevils still cause around $150 million worth of damage a year in the United States but have largely been brought under control there thanks to traps bated with boll weevil pheromes and Malathion, a strong, effective chemical insecticide that has to be used sparingly because of the environmental damage it can cause. Using these tools it is hoped that the boll weevil will be eradicated completely from the United States by 2009. The boll weevil remains a threat in Mexico and Central America and is making advances in South America.. The cotton leafworm is another cotton pest that comes from the Veracruz area of Mexico.
Cotton Production
American cotton pickers Cotton is regarded as an industrial crop. Modern mills are clean and have quiet machines. Some "virtually run themselves." Older factories found in places like India rely on machinery brought from England 100 years ago and are noisy, dirty, dangerous places filled inhalable dust and lint and mill laborers performing mind-numbing and body-destroying chores.
The first thing that is done after the cotton is harvested is the separation of the seeds from the cotton with a cotton gin consisting of hooked-tooth saws that tear the fibers from the seeds. Modern gins also remove moisture, impurities and dust from the fibers. Afterwards, the free fibers, called lint, are sucked away into a collection area. The seeds are saved to use for next year's crop or crushed to make oil for margarine, cooking oil or cosmetics. The cottons fibers are pressed into bales weighing around 500 pounds.
At a cotton mills picking machines clean the cotton and make it into rolls called “laps” . Carding machines, cylinders with wire points, straightens the fibers and mold them into finger-thick, ropelike strands called slivers. Drawing frames draw out several slivers at one time and combine them into single strands. Riving machines then twists and further draw out the cotton into a thinner strand. Spinning machine then draw and twist the strands into yarns of desired sizes and widens them on bobbins for weaving.
Yarns of cotton are woven together on looms with warps (lengthwise yarns) on rollers. Every other warp thread is lifted all at once while a shuttle drives wefts (crosswise yarn) under the even warp threads and over the odd ones. Rollers shift so that the weft carried by the shuttle on the return journey goes over the even warp threads and under the odd ones. The shuttle can make 200 or more trips a minute. Afterwards the unfinished "gray goods" fabric is taken to a converter for final processing. This includes bleaching, dying, preshrinking and printing the fabric. The fabric can be combed into denim and given a finishing of crepe, glazed chintze or water resistance.
Cotton Technology and Genetically-Modified Cotton
Recently scientist have cross white varieties of long-strand cotton with short-stranded colored cotton to produce colored cottons with fibers long enough for machine spinning. The advantage of these new varieties is that colored cotton doesn't fade like dyed cotton does, and polluting chemical dyes are not necessary. **
cotton module Biotechnology has produced disease-resistant cotton. Cotton bioengineered to withstand attacks from the cotton bollworm were introduced to north China around the year 2000. The cotton was engineered o produce a toxin — originally found in a soil bacterium called Bacillus thuringiensis — that was effective keeping the bollworm away and reducing the need for pesticide. [Source: Per Pinstrup-Andersen, Cornell University, Los Angeles Times]
Opponents of GM crops warned that the bollworms would develop resistance to the toxin and become more damaging than ever. That didn’t happen. Instead by eliminating the bollworms as a threat a new pest emerged — mirid bugs — that were not affected by the toxin and multiplied. Not only did they end up causing more damage than the bollworms they also devoured crops other than cotton such as grapes, apples, peaches and pears. Farmers handled the problem by using more pesticides than they did before the GM cotton was introduced.
Cotton farmers in Arizona faced the same dilemma after they began planting Bt cotton in 1996 and the absence of pesticides made fields safe for lygus bugs, a type of mirid bug. Farmers there dealt with the problem by using targeted pesticides that spared insects like ladybugs that feed on lygus bugs, said University of Arizona entomologist Bruce Tabashnik. [Source: Karen Kaplan, Los Angeles Times , May 16, 2010]
"The lesson here is that Bt cotton is not a silver bullet," said Tabashnik, who nonetheless endorses the crop for its role in reducing the need for anti-bollworm pesticides.There's no reason to think that other types of genetically engineered crops would be immune to this type of problem, Pinstrup-Andersen said. Ultimately, he said, the solution is to develop genetically modified plants that are resistant to a variety of insects, but that will be a continuous process. "We have to constantly stay ahead of those things," he said.
World’s Top Cotton Exporting and Importing Countries
loading a cotton module World’s Top Exporters of Cotton Lint (2020): 1) United States: 3822303 tonnes; 2) Brazil: 2125418 tonnes; 3) India: 965240 tonnes; 4) Greece: 289294 tonnes; 5) Benin: 280064 tonnes; 6) Australia: 170282 tonnes; 7) Burkina Faso: 166652 tonnes; 8) Argentina: 116881 tonnes; 9) Tajikistan: 100127 tonnes; 10) Uzbekistan: 100121 tonnes; 11) Sudan: 98205 tonnes; 12) Azerbaijan: 97578 tonnes; 13) Cote d’Ivoire: 91139 tonnes; 14) Turkey: 86899 tonnes; 15) Egypt: 75508 tonnes; 16) Tanzania: 69231 tonnes; 17) Kazakhstan: 62298 tonnes; 18) Malaysia: 54571 tonnes; 19) Afghanistan: 52279 tonnes; 20) Spain: 51730 tonnes [Source: FAOSTAT, Food and Agriculture Organization (U.N.), fao.org]
World’s Top Exporters (in value terms) of Cotton Lint (2020): 1) United States: US$5969433,000; 2) Brazil: US$3226916,000; 3) India: US$1448516,000; 4) Greece: US$449992,000; 5) Benin: US$448829,000; 6) Australia: US$307109,000; 7) Burkina Faso: US$263296,000; 8) Egypt: US$161604,000; 9) Turkey: US$159811,000; 10) Uzbekistan: US$147318,000; 11) Tajikistan: US$135994,000; 12) Azerbaijan: US$131930,000; 13) Cote d’Ivoire: US$124448,000; 14) Argentina: US$113673,000; 15) Sudan: US$110115,000; 16) Tanzania: US$97284,000; 17) Kazakhstan: US$82986,000; 18) Spain: US$80153,000; 19) Mexico: US$67266,000; 20) Togo: US$63288,000
World’s Top Importers of Cotton Lint (2020): 1) China: 2158095 tonnes; 2) Vietnam: 1388528 tonnes; 3) Bangladesh: 1190699 tonnes; 4) Turkey: 1064782 tonnes; 5) Pakistan: 818737 tonnes; 6) Indonesia: 486258 tonnes; 7) Egypt: 189917 tonnes; 8) India: 174121 tonnes; 9) Thailand: 133589 tonnes; 10) Malaysia: 121620 tonnes; 11) South Korea: 115204 tonnes; 12) Mexico: 95303 tonnes; 13) Iran: 77691 tonnes; 14) Taiwan: 67863 tonnes; 15) Japan: 34958 tonnes; 16) Peru: 34204 tonnes; 17) Portugal: 30001 tonnes; 18) Italy: 28379 tonnes; 19) El Salvador: 27904 tonnes; 20) Guatemala: 26844 tonnes [Source: FAOSTAT, Food and Agriculture Organization (U.N.), fao.org]
World’s Top Importers (in value terms) of Cotton Lint (2020): 1) China: US$3562312,000; 2) Vietnam: US$2176156,000; 3) Bangladesh: US$2014804,000; 4) Turkey: US$1652640,000; 5) Pakistan: US$1315549,000; 6) Indonesia: US$774649,000; 7) India: US$344649,000; 8) Thailand: US$218573,000; 9) Malaysia: US$209468,000; 10) South Korea: US$187109,000; 11) Egypt: US$168794,000; 12) Mexico: US$153431,000; 13) Iran: US$132042,000; 14) Taiwan: US$98787,000; 15) Peru: US$63999,000; 16) Japan: US$62533,000; 17) Italy: US$55981,000; 18) El Salvador: US$51221,000; 19) Portugal: US$48586,000; 20) Guatemala: US$45850,000
Exporters and Importers of Carded and Combed Cotton
Cotton jins in use Combing and carding are two related techniques for preparing cotton, hair or wool fibres. With combing, fibres are passed through a series of straight, metal teeth in align the fibres parallel to one another so they can more easily be woven into yarn or fabric. Carding uses cards with numerous wire teeth that separate the fibres and spread them into a web (but not in parallel lines like with combed fires) and removes short or broken fibres as well as impurities. [Source: Leiden University]
World’s Top Exporters of Carded and Combed Cotton (2020): 1) Mali: 170000 tonnes; 2) India: 18499 tonnes; 3) Uganda: 17112 tonnes; 4) Indonesia: 13936 tonnes; 5) Mexico: 10227 tonnes; 6) United States: 8820 tonnes; 7) Turkey: 6165 tonnes; 8) Benin: 5991 tonnes; 9) South Korea: 5716 tonnes; 10) Mozambique: 4732 tonnes; 11) Poland: 3319 tonnes; 12) Lesotho: 2582 tonnes; 13) Vietnam: 2206 tonnes; 14) Japan: 1801 tonnes; 15) Portugal: 1317 tonnes; 16) Italy: 882 tonnes; 17) South Africa: 795 tonnes; 18) Netherlands: 653 tonnes; 19) Greece: 565 tonnes; 20) Bangladesh: 482 tonnes [Source: FAOSTAT, Food and Agriculture Organization (U.N.), fao.org]
World’s Top Exporters (in value terms) of Carded and Combed Cotton (2020): 1) Mali: US$433000,000; 2) United States: US$40954,000; 3) Uganda: US$23340,000; 4) Indonesia: US$20342,000; 5) India: US$16473,000; 6) Mexico: US$13025,000; 7) Benin: US$9639,000; 8) Poland: US$9523,000; 9) South Korea: US$9052,000; 10) Japan: US$7573,000; 11) Lesotho: US$6922,000; 12) Mozambique: US$6189,000; 13) Turkey: US$5050,000; 14) Netherlands: US$4276,000; 15) Italy: US$4161,000; 16) Vietnam: US$3972,000; 17) South Africa: US$2051,000; 18) France: US$1972,000; 19) United Arab Emirates: US$1657,000; 20) Belgium: US$1456,000
World’s Top Importers of Carded and Combed Cotton (2020): 1) Vietnam: 36588 tonnes; 2) Taiwan: 17637 tonnes; 3) Spain: 12868 tonnes; 4) Poland: 8945 tonnes; 5) United Kingdom: 7696 tonnes; 6) France: 7065 tonnes; 7) Russia: 6303 tonnes; 8) Bangladesh: 4406 tonnes; 9) South Africa: 2704 tonnes; 10) South Korea: 2613 tonnes; 11) Philippines: 2057 tonnes; 12) Japan: 1888 tonnes; 13) Mexico: 1473 tonnes; 14) Botswana: 1435 tonnes; 15) Malaysia: 1060 tonnes; 16) Honduras: 1053 tonnes; 17) China: 824 tonnes; 18) Italy: 743 tonnes; 19) Estonia: 720 tonnes; 20) Indonesia: 694 tonnes [Source: FAOSTAT, Food and Agriculture Organization (U.N.), fao.org]
World’s Top Importers (in value terms) of Carded and Combed Cotton (2020): 1) Vietnam: US$38816,000; 2) France: US$22985,000; 3) Taiwan: US$22638,000; 4) Poland: US$17744,000; 5) Spain: US$14327,000; 6) United Kingdom: US$12845,000; 7) Russia: US$11115,000; 8) Bangladesh: US$7682,000; 9) South Africa: US$6997,000; 10) Japan: US$6269,000; 11) Netherlands: US$5111,000; 12) Philippines: US$4969,000; 13) Honduras: US$4448,000; 14) Austria: US$3909,000; 15) Botswana: US$3837,000; 16) China: US$2930,000; 17) South Korea: US$2916,000; 18) Italy: US$2651,000; 19) Israel: US$2574,000; 20) New Zealand: US$2099,000
Edible Cotton
Cotton seeds contain a toxic chemical called gossypol, which helps protect the seeds from pests. If it wasn’t for that cotton seeds would be a good food. They are rich in high-quality protein. The plant grows well in hot, dry conditions.
Scientists at Texas A&M University lead by professor Keerti Rathore have managed to produce gossypol-free seeds in plants that have been engineered so that the gene responsible for producing gossypol does so in the leaves and flowers, protecting the plant from pests, but not in the seeds, allowing them to be eaten.
By one estimate 500 million people could get their protein needs from detoxified cottonseeds from current cotton-production levels. Under normal circumstances gosypil can only removed through an extensive refining process. The new genetically-engineered (GM) plants appear normal in every way except the gossypol is not present in the seeds and the traits can be passed on to offspring. Getting this kind of GM cotton approved will take some time. Additionally, in the early stages the seeds will be used mostly as animal feed. As for their taste, Rathore told Time magazine a he popped a few seeds in his mouth, “It’s not bad...like chick peas.”
Cottonseed Oil and Cake Producers and Exporters
World’s Top Exporters of Cottonseed (2020): 1) United States: 312428 tonnes; 2) Greece: 274137 tonnes; 3) Benin: 198645 tonnes; 4) Côte d'Ivoire: 160000 tonnes; 5) Brazil: 29313 tonnes; 6) Zambia: 18887 tonnes; 7) Togo: 16791 tonnes; 8) Kazakhstan: 15330 tonnes; 9) Azerbaijan: 13175 tonnes; 10) Ethiopia: 9491 tonnes; 11) Argentina: 8047 tonnes; 12) South Korea: 3884 tonnes; 13) Malawi: 3732 tonnes; 14) Nigeria: 3550 tonnes; 15) Turkey: 3289 tonnes; 16) Indonesia: 2877 tonnes; 17) Uzbekistan: 2062 tonnes; 18) Australia: 1736 tonnes; 19) Myanmar: 1185 tonnes; 20) Mexico: 1166 tonnes [Source: FAOSTAT, Food and Agriculture Organization (U.N.), fao.org]
World’s Top Exporters (in value terms) of Cottonseed (2020): 1) United States: US$94576,000; 2) Greece: US$69875,000; 3) Côte d'Ivoire: US$15800,000; 4) Benin: US$12491,000; 5) Ethiopia: US$9241,000; 6) Turkey: US$8320,000; 7) Brazil: US$6526,000; 8) Israel: US$4592,000; 9) India: US$3338,000; 10) Zambia: US$3209,000; 11) Togo: US$2814,000; 12) Azerbaijan: US$2523,000; 13) Nigeria: US$2520,000; 14) Kazakhstan: US$1539,000; 15) South Korea: US$1401,000; 16) Australia: US$1350,000; 17) Uganda: US$1304,000; 18) Netherlands: US$1133,000; 19) Argentina: US$1105,000; 20) France: US$796,000
World’s Top Producers of Cottonseed Oil (2019): 1) China: 1284700 tonnes; 2) India: 1199100 tonnes; 3) Pakistan: 323900 tonnes; 4) Brazil: 283801 tonnes; 5) United States: 218000 tonnes; 6) Turkey: 206500 tonnes; 7) Uzbekistan: 161570 tonnes; 8) Burkina Faso: 82071 tonnes; 9) Mali: 65300 tonnes; 10) Mexico: 64300 tonnes; 11) Turkmenistan: 45400 tonnes; 12) Benin: 35100 tonnes; 13) Cameroon: 29700 tonnes; 14) Myanmar: 26057 tonnes; 15) Egypt: 24400 tonnes; 16) Tanzania: 24100 tonnes; 17) South Korea: 24000 tonnes; 18) Greece: 22600 tonnes; 19) Kazakhstan: 20838 tonnes; 20) Italy: 20400 tonnes [Source: FAOSTAT, Food and Agriculture Organization (U.N.), fao.org]
World’s Top Exporters of Cottonseed Oil (2020): 1) United States: 33336 tonnes; 2) Uzbekistan: 22089 tonnes; 3) Kazakhstan: 12574 tonnes; 4) Turkey: 9032 tonnes; 5) Malaysia: 8972 tonnes; 6) South Africa: 7849 tonnes; 7) Azerbaijan: 6901 tonnes; 8) Brazil: 4706 tonnes; 9) Benin: 4510 tonnes; 10) Turkmenistan: 3500 tonnes; 11) Burkina Faso: 2567 tonnes; 12) China: 2199 tonnes; 13) Zambia: 2186 tonnes; 14) Greece: 579 tonnes; 15) Zimbabwe: 540 tonnes; 16) Egypt: 469 tonnes; 17) France: 437 tonnes; 18) Spain: 373 tonnes; 19) Germany: 269 tonnes; 20) Pakistan: 104 tonnes
cotton for sale in Luxor bazaar World’s Top Exporters (in value terms) of Cottonseed Oil (2020): 1) United States: US$30220,000; 2) Uzbekistan: US$16945,000; 3) Kazakhstan: US$11955,000; 4) Malaysia: US$10983,000; 5) South Africa: US$9402,000; 6) Turkey: US$8600,000; 7) Benin: US$4496,000; 8) Azerbaijan: US$4125,000; 9) Brazil: US$4077,000; 10) Turkmenistan: US$3200,000; 11) Zambia: US$2854,000; 12) China: US$2107,000; 13) Burkina Faso: US$1998,000; 14) Greece: US$755,000; 15) Spain: US$738,000; 16) France: US$603,000; 17) Germany: US$577,000; 18) Egypt: US$458,000; 19) Zimbabwe: US$401,000; 20) India: US$390,000
World’s Top Exporters of Cottonseed Cake (2020): 1) Benin: 106808 tonnes; 2) Greece: 87979 tonnes; 3) United States: 80106 tonnes; 4) Tanzania: 68042 tonnes; 5) Burkina Faso: 61455 tonnes; 6) Mali: 51369 tonnes; 7) India: 34489 tonnes; 8) Uzbekistan: 17506 tonnes; 9) Kazakhstan: 16918 tonnes; 10) Argentina: 16026 tonnes; 11) Azerbaijan: 14339 tonnes; 12) Zimbabwe: 9047 tonnes; 13) Zambia: 8727 tonnes; 14) Turkey: 6275 tonnes; 15) Uganda: 4510 tonnes; 16) Mozambique: 3895 tonnes; 17) Cote d’Ivoire: 2900 tonnes; 18) Indonesia: 2754 tonnes; 19) Turkmenistan: 1680 tonnes; 20) Iran: 1089 tonnes [Source: FAOSTAT, Food and Agriculture Organization (U.N.), fao.org]
World’s Top Exporters (in value terms) of Cottonseed Cake (2020): 1) Benin: US$30083,000; 2) United States: US$20573,000; 3) Greece: US$19773,000; 4) Tanzania: US$13076,000; 5) Mali: US$12830,000; 6) Burkina Faso: US$11017,000; 7) India: US$8377,000; 8) Uzbekistan: US$3657,000; 9) Kazakhstan: US$3218,000; 10) Zimbabwe: US$2881,000; 11) Argentina: US$2391,000; 12) Azerbaijan: US$2109,000; 13) Uganda: US$1767,000; 14) Zambia: US$1700,000; 15) Turkey: US$1314,000; 16) Mozambique: US$830,000; 17) Indonesia: US$782,000; 18) Turkmenistan: US$305,000; 19) Germany: US$284,000; 20) Austria: US$107,000
Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons
Text Sources: Mostly National Geographic articles. Also Time, Newsweek, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Wikipedia, The Independent, Times of London, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, Reuters, AP, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, Compton?s Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.
Last updated April 2022