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Decline Of World Cotton Prices On Poverty

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7055 AGRIBUS Paper 1
29 August 2014 Hannah Twine 1194821

Decline in world cotton prices effects on poverty in West African cotton exporting countries rural poverty.

Introduction
Over 2001-2002, world cotton prices fell by almost 40% as a response to government subsidies in market-dominators Europe, China and the United States, a trend towards using synthetic fibres, and economic downturn decreasing the demand for garments.
This paper will explain the price transmission between world cotton prices to the domestic prices in the West African ‘Cotton Four’ (‘C4’) countries of Benin, Mali, Burkina Faso and Chad. It will analyse the short- and long-term effects on domestic farmers’ income, the implications for domestic production of cotton and other relevant crops in these countries, and then look at the effects on the labour markets of these nations.
This paper will find that, in the long-term, spatial price transmission is present in the global cotton market and this both directly and indirectly affects farmers’ welfare in the C4 nations. This will be displayed through looking at the price elasticity of cotton. The paper will then seek to make recommendations for the C4 governments and relevant stakeholders such as agricultural associations to respond to global changes, caused by the transmission mechanism, more effectively

It is valuable to engage in conversations regarding the implications of policy and price transmission in agricultural markets as this can

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