#Raw Materials

2019-01-16

The December 2018 ICAC Recorder continues its focus on yields in Africa

The December 2018 ICAC Recorder continued the theme established in the prior issue, which was released in September: ‘Cotton High Yields, This Time for Africa’. At 34 pages long, it includes four major feature articles, as well as an introductory editorial penned by the International Cotton Advisory Committee’s (ICAC) Head of the Technical Information Section, Dr. Keshav Kranthi.

The issue begins with Dr. Kranthi’s editorial, which previews the four features and promises that in the future, ICAC will ‘continue its technical efforts to explore tangible solutions to the intractable challenges in Africa and looks forward to collaborating with interested agencies for breaking the yield barriers and for the betterment of cotton farming systems and the entire cotton sector in Africa’.

The first feature article, entitled ‘Higher Cotton Productivity in Africa – A Socio Economic Analysis’, was written by two professionals with India’s Central Institute for Cotton Research (ICAR) in Coimbatore: M. Sabesh and A.H. Prakash. The authors point out that a small increase in cotton prices can more than compensate for lower yields, and that governments need to decide whether to focus on increasing cotton prices or yields.

The second feature is entitled, ‘Light and Simplified Cultivation (LSC) Techniques and their Relevance for Africa’. Authored by Hezhong Dong of the Cotton Research Centre at the Shandong Academy of Agricultural Science, it is an overview of LSC techniques designed to reduce the labour-intensiveness of cotton cultivation.

Article three — ‘Conservation Agriculture for Sustainable Cotton Production in Africa’ — was written by Blaise Desouza at ICAR in Nagpur. He specifically addresses the need for growers to follow best management practices in Africa, particularly as they apply to soil health.

The final article was authored by Dr. Kranthi and takes a high-level view of the use of biotech cotton for both insect resistance and herbicide tolerance. It includes a country-by-country breakdown of which cotton-cultivating nations in Africa have approved one or both types of genetically modified cotton.

To view the December 2018 edition of The ICAC Recorder, please click one of the links below:

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Dr N Vigneshwaran is named 2026 ICAC Researcher of the Year

The International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC) is pleased to announce the selection of Dr N Vigneshwaran, Principal Scientist and Head of the Chemical and Biochemical Processing Division at the ICAR–Central Institute for Research on Cotton Technology (ICAR-CIRCOT), Mumbai, India, as the ICAC Researcher of the Year 2026.

China projected to increase cotton production, yields, and imports in 2026/27

World cotton production in the 2026/27 season is projected at 25.9 million tonnes, exceeding global consumption of 25.2 million tonnes, according to the May 2026 issue of Cotton This Month. That means both production and consumption are expected to remain close to current season levels, while global cotton trade is projected to decline by 2.7% to approximately 9.6-9.7 million tonnes.

New U.S. cotton study uses real-world grower data to reveal where fiber impacts occur

Cotton Incorporated has released a critically reviewed life cycle assessment (LCA) of U.S. cotton fiber production that examines how cotton’s environmental impacts are measured and where meaningful improvements can be made across the value chain. The new data, grounded in real‑world grower inputs, measures what drives U.S. cotton’s environmental footprint from field to gin.

ECCO introduces first shoe featuring innovative protein-based fibre

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TM WEFT, 270" – More width, more design freedom for the fashion world

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“Production is a product”

From technical textiles and AI-driven robotics to the limitations of textile circularity: Professor Dr Thomas Gries looks back on more than two decades of development at ITA Aachen. In the interview, he explains why production technology remains a decisive success factor, discusses international collaborations and innovation ecosystems, and shares his views on the transformation of production landscapes and the challenges facing an increasingly regulated industry.