INTRODUCTION
Cotton is the most essential
natural fiber crop in the world for textile produce, accounting for about 50%
of all fibers used in the textile industry. It is more important than the
various synthetic fibers, and it is grown all over the world in about 80
countries (Acquaah, 2007). Cotton is unique among agricultural crops, because
it is the main natural fiber crop, and also provides edible oil and seed
by-products for livestock feed, it also provides income for hundreds of
millions of people (Chaudhry and Guitchounts,
2003). Cotton is one of the agro-industrial crops which are produced in both
developing and developed countries. Cotton fibers are used in clothing and
household furnishings (Goreux, 2003). It has played
an important role since the industrial revolution of the 17th century.
Currently, it is an important cash crop especially for a number of developing
countries at local and national levels (Baffes,
2004).
Cotton is the most
important cash crop in Ethiopia and plays a vital role in the agricultural and
industrial development of the country’s economy. Cotton provides basic raw
materials (cotton fiber) to the textile industry for domestic market or for
export. Besides its fiber, cotton provides seed, which is an important source
of rich protein and oil for human and animal consumption. At the household
level, cotton is an important cash crop for the small holder farmers
nationwide, and it generates income to rural household food security,
especially to the peasant subsistence farmers in Ethiopia. Moreover, cotton
provides livelihood to hundreds of thousands of people engaged in farming,
processing, trade and marketing. Cotton is both an important export and import
substitute commodity crop and as an export crop, it is an important foreign
currency earner and as an important substitute crop, it serves as an important
item to save the country’s earning and thus the contribution of the cotton crop
to the overall growth of national economy is immense.
Cotton is widely grown in the
lowlands under large-scale irrigation schemes and on small-scale farms under
rain-fed agriculture in Ethiopia (EIA, 2012). Cotton is primarily grown as fibre crop. In Ethiopia, a good cotton yield is obtainable
from areas varying in altitude from sea level to about 1000 masl
(EIA, 2012). The Omo-Ghibe, Wabi
Shebele, Awash, Baro-Akobo,
Blue Nile, and Tekeze river basins have been
identified as major potential cotton growing areas in Ethiopia (Alebel Bayrau et al.,
2014).
Ethiopia
has a very good cotton-growing condition and a large amount of land potentially
suitable for cotton production (Alebel Bayrau et al., 2014). However, out of the country‘s
total potential areas for cotton production, only about three percent is being
utilized currently. As a result, the amount of cotton produced in the country
is small and the current domestic cotton production is much lower than the
potential (Bosena Tegene et
al., 2011).
Werer
Agricultural Research Center (WARC) was established under the umbrella of the
Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), to coordinate national
cotton research program in Ethiopia. Various studies
have been conducted by WARC/EIAR on cotton research under different
disciplines. About 34 convectional varieties have been released by WARC/EIAR
since 1960s up to 2015 through introduction, adaptation and collection as well
as hybridization of lines for generating recombinants, followed commonly by
pedigree selection. Out of these varieties, about 29 varieties have been
released for irrigated areas, whereas 05 varieties have been released for rain-fed
based cotton production areas. In addition to convectional varieties,
since among cotton production constraints, Bollworms
are the major constraints and they cause about 36- 60% yield loss in severe
infestations (Ababu, 1986) at Ethiopian conditions.
So, Ethiopia started Bt cotton adaptation trial under
confined field during 2017 cropping season and depending on the results, 2
hybrid Bt cotton varieties are recommended for commercial production.
Insect
pests of cotton are a key restriction to production because of the large yield
losses and quality degradation they cause. To manage cotton pests, a number of
entomological research works have been conducted since the establishment of
WARC. The yield potential of cotton mainly depends on its appropriate
management practices. So, various number of agronomical research practices have
been done by WARC to increase cotton
production, productivity and fiber quality through developing appropriate
cotton management practices and cropping system for different cotton growing
agro ecologies. For the last five decades, WARC/EIAR
is not only generating improved cotton technologies, but also in
collaboration with various partners multiplying and disseminating improved
cotton technologies to end users, a lot has been done so far and greatly
contributed for the development of cotton sectors in the country.
WARC/EIAR
has been making a maximum effort to the development of the country’s
agricultural sector through generating several improved cotton technologies
by different research disciplines since its establishment. Despite the large
amount of improved cotton technologies generated, most of them were
underutilized by farmers. Moreover, the research efforts made so far to develop high yielding varieties with better fibre qualities through the utilization of hybridization
methods and selection technique from existing stocks was also not successful in
part because
of the limited availability of cotton germplasm materials, and partly due to the
negative correlation between yield and quality of cotton in addition to the
absence of instrumentation at the research center for measuring fiber quality
properties made the research attempts to develop varieties which can allow the
production of cotton with acceptable quality and quantity.
In
general, research on cotton follows a multidisciplinary
team approach to tackle the various production problems. Research project
components include variety development; crop management (fertility and
irrigation); pest management (entomology, plant pathology and weed management),
socio economic research; technology multiplication and promotion.
Potential areas for cotton production in Ethiopia
Ethiopia has a long practice of cotton cultivation. Majority of the
cotton cultivation takes place in the Awash Valley, Gambela,
Humera, and Metema. Cotton
has grown in many of the regions in the country. In each region, there are wide
potential areas: in Tigray 269130ha, in Amhara 678,710 ha, in South nations,
nationalities and people region (SNNPR) 600,900 ha, in Oromia
407420 ha, Gambella 316,450 ha, Benshangul
303,170ha, Afar 200,000 ha and Somali 225,000ha. Most of the areas are low land
and at river basins (EIA, 2012). A report in 2010
from the then Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) indicates
that there is about more than 3 million hectares of potential land suitable for
cotton production in the country. On the contrary, current area covered by
cotton crop in Ethiopia is estimated to be only about 100,000 hectares, out of
this, 60, 000ha is commercially irrigated and 40,000ha is small scale, from
which 70% rain-fed and 30% irrigated, (SOFERCO scoping study, 2016
unpublished).
Production
trends and gaps
However, out of the
country‘s total potential areas for cotton production, only about less than three
percent is being utilized currently. As a result, the amount of cotton produced
in the country is small (Bosena Tegene
et al., 2011) and the current domestic cotton production is much lower
than the potential which poses as a constraint with respect to poor integration
of the country‘s textile and garment industries, limited use of pesticides and
chemical fertilizers by Ethiopian smallholder farmers (EIA, 2012). The areas
coverage and the amount of seed cotton production have been fluctuating (Figure
1) because, Farmers are shifting from cotton production to high-value crops
such as sesame, sugarcane, etc. because of poor productivity and low market
price for seed cotton or discouraging price difference between the three (A, B
and C grades) quality standards of cotton lint. But, Cotton consumption in
Ethiopia is outstripped domestic cotton production due to the demands of the
rapidly expanding textile industry. Thus, Ethiopia has been importing cotton
from abroad (USA, China and India). For instance, according to ICAC (2016)
report, Ethiopia imported cotton lint that amounted to 11,000 and 13,000 Mt
during 2014/15 and 2015/16 respectively and about 50 and 60 thousands of bales
during 2017/18 and 2018/19 respectively ( Table 1).
As pointed out earlier,
Ethiopia has a considerable potential for growing cotton not only in terms of
suitability of the existing ecological settings but also a number of other
factors including favorable policy, economic, socio-cultural, technological and
environmental perspectives. As part of the external environmental factors
assessment, it is also a logical exercise to examine the potentials of cotton
in the country which can and should be exploited by drawing lessons from other
countries that have advanced levels of research and development achievements in
cotton production-productivity.
Cotton lint is the
main raw material needed for the production of garments and will be sourced
from ginneries and traders. Accordingly, comparisons, in terms of production
and lint cotton yield productivity were made between the statuses that the
national cotton production and productivity is found in currently and that of
the world average and those of top cotton producing countries with comparable
environmental settings and the highest records which is for the purpose of
benchmarks (Table 2). It is very clear from Table 2 that the gap between what
has been achieved so far by the National Cotton Research program and the potential
promise is wide for cotton production-productivity and key quality variables in
Ethiopia. This available potential can, therefore, be considered as one of the
stimuli to even augment research efforts in a bid to maximize productivities
thereby contributing to the overall volume of production to satisfy the textile
industries increasing demand in Ethiopia.
Major past research efforts and achievements
Cotton is an
important source of cash for the growers and an important input for textile
factories, cottage industries and oil mills. The cotton industry evolved from
home-yard cultivation into modern state and private farms, and from cottage
weaving into modern spinning and weaving mills. In order to satisfy the growing
demands of cotton from time to time, research on cotton was established in 1966
at Melka Werer (now Werer), one of the potential areas in the Middle Awash
Valley. WARC
was established under the umbrella of the EIAR, to coordinate national cotton
research program in Ethiopia. For the last five
decades, WARC has made the utmost effort and
several improved cotton technologies were released. The early years of
cotton research focused mainly at improving the yield of cotton as the needs of
the expanding textile mills was for quantity rather than quality. Consequently,
it was possible to develop varieties that gave remarkable seed cotton yield of
3 - 5 t/ha under research condition. Over the past four decades, based on their
yield performances 19 improved varieties were identified and recommended and/or
released to producers.
In recent
years, ginners and spinners have become quality conscious and demand for better
quality. Hence, increased pressure is being placed on cotton breeders to
develop cultivars that meet the requirements of growers for high yield
potential and the demands of the textile industry for improved fiber quality.
Varietal development
Starting from its
establishment, Werer Agricultural Research Center was
mandated for developing genotypes that are suitable for different
agro-ecologies to meet the demands of farmers and the textile industries across
the country by employing conventional breeding methods. To date, 22 varieties
and 7 hybrids were released for irrigated areas and 5 varieties for rain-fed
areas based on their merits of seed cotton yield and fiber quality
characteristics. A total of 34 convectional varieties have been released by the
cotton research department as shown below in Table1. These varieties have been
released depending on ranking mean performances of genotypes at individual
locations and overall mean performances of genotypes methods through
introduction and adaptation and as well as hybridization of lines for
generating recombinants, followed commonly by pedigree selection. Since cotton
is predominantly self-pollinated, but up to about 30% sometimes higher
cross-pollination occurs (Acquaah, 2007), hybridization of lines for generating
recombinants, followed commonly by pedigree selection to identify superior
genotypes is the most common breeding procedure that has been used by WARC. The
cotton research team currently is dealing with the acquisition of more
varieties and testing for their adaptation and evaluating them with more
emphasis on fiber quality parameters. Moreover, as cotton is more liable to
pests, management practices to control them and improved agronomic practices
are the core research agenda for the cotton research team. In addition to convectional varieties, since among cotton production constraints, insect pests of cotton are a major constraint
to production because of the large amount of yield losses and quality
degradation they cause, Ethiopia started Bt cotton adaptation trial under confined
field during 2017 cropping season and depending on the results, 2 hybrid Bt
cotton varieties are recommended for commercial production in 2018.
Among these varieties,
some of them weren’t used by producers because, some of the varieties had become
obsolete because of replacements by another varieties, some of them are hybrids
which were recommended through introduction and adaptation and because of their
high seed price, producers didn’t import seed and produce and some of the
varieties were not popularized or promoted to producers as well. Therefore,
currently a small number of varieties are under production in the country.
But, cotton research in Ethiopia is still conventional. It needs some
modernizing specially breeding system, such as using marker assisted selection
technology, Enhanced breeding system, breeding cycle, breeding for long
staple cotton, breeding varieties suitable for mechanical harvesting, breeding
for drought tolerant varieties, transgenic cotton, Genomic studies, Resistance
breeding, Hybrid technologies, Mutation breeding, Breeding for Colored Cotton, etc.
Crop
Management
Yield
potential of the cotton crop largely depends on management practices from land
preparation to harvesting. Research and demonstration efforts have been made to
implement several recommendations on proper cultural practices such as land and
seedbed preparation, time of sowing, seeding rate and spacing, irrigation
system, fertilizer rate, weed management, use of cotton defoliant and cotton
growth regulator, proper time of harvesting and post-harvest handling system to
ensure increased cotton production and productivity in the country.
Cotton Pest Management
Research
The cotton plant
protection research activity was mainly undertaken with full responsibility of Werer Agricultural Research Center under three major
research disciplines namely; cotton entomology, and pathology and weed science
research with the objective of contributing for the enhancement of cotton
production and productivity through adoption, generation and promotion of
effective cotton pest management technologies and information in the sector.
Cotton Entomology Research
Pests recorded: Based
on the field survey conducted from 1986/87 to 1995/96, more than 60 insect and
2 mite species were recorded on cotton and their status was categorized as
major, minor, rare and sporadic pests of cotton in Ethiopia. Results of surveys indicated that the African
bollworm (ABW) (Helicoverpa armigera),
aphid (Aphis gossypii),
leaf worm (Spodoptera litoralis),
pink bollworm (Pectinophora gossypiella),
jassid (Empoasca lybica), whitefly (Bemisia tabaci) and thrips
(Thrips tabaci) were
recorded as key pests (Tsedeke, 1982 and Ermias et al,
2009).
Basic
studies
Several basic studies
such as: Population dynamics for bollworms, armyworms
and whitefly, Diapauses behavior studies of the African
and pink bollworms, Host range of cotton whitefly (Bemisiatabaci), Detection of Insecticide resistance for ABW and cotton
aphid were made and the findings were documented as base line information for
planning further management studies. Different management methods of these
insect pests are also recommended so far for the producers.
Constraints
for Cotton Research in Ethiopia
Germplasm Enhancement
·
Lack of large number of germplasms (Limited
germplasm resources)
·
Narrow genetic bases for different traits of
interest at researchers hands
·
Lack of varieties that combine high yielding
ability with good quality characters
·
Lack of hybrid cotton varieties suitable to
different production systems & agro-ecologies
·
Lack of long and extra- long cotton germplasms (Gossypium bardadense/ Egyptian cotton)
·
Shortage of varieties for rain fed cotton growing
areas
·
Lack of varieties resistance/tolerant to biotic (diseases and pests) and abiotic
(salinity, drought and temperature) stress
·
Lack of cotton varieties suitable for mechanical
harvesting
·
Lack of plant biotechnology research to assist
conventional cotton breeding
Limited
capacity (human, facility and financial) at the research center
There is no interest
from donors to support cotton research financially and technologically; since
cotton is considered as a cash crop/ government interest crop. Therefore, its
research is fully supported by the limited public money. Moreover, the crop is grown
and researched in harsh environment; there is high turnover of skilled manpower
in the research system.
Lack of cotton seed production, supply and
delivery system
Cotton seed for
planting has always been a constraint. Limited quantitative and qualitative
seed cotton production in Ethiopia is the limited availability and poor quality
of planting seeds (cotton seed) provided to seed cotton producers. Seed is not
available in the required quality and quantity. In Ethiopia, there is no cotton seed production,
processing, and delivery mechanism except the services provided by Werer Agricultural Research Center (WARC) (parent seeds and
commercial seeds on a limited
scale) and the informal seed channel provided by some
private commercial farms, private seed companies, private traders, ginneries
and smallholder farmers.
Weak
cotton research-extension (RE) linkage system
The
extension system is highly devoted for the promotion of food crops and the
cotton sector is highly neglected. Most small scale cotton farmers use
unimproved varieties, low inputs and poor management practices resulting in low
productivity and poor quality lint. Compared to other major crops, extension service
on cotton development has been discouragingly low.
Biotic and
abiotic stress factors
Insect
pests of cotton are a major constraint to production because of the significant
yield losses and quality degradation they cause. Bollworms cause about 36- 60%
yield loss and on irrigated cotton production, about 22% and 14% of seed cotton
yield loss can be caused by sucking pests and cotton aphid, respectively (Ababu, 1986). Climate change is becoming a threat as
a cause for emergence of new pests such as mealy bug. Also a dynamic shift
of some minor pests such as white fly, thrips and
spider mites to major pests in the cotton ecosystem is a big concern.
Unrestricted spread of these pests is highly challenging to cotton production
and requires the attention of the research system. On the other hand,
cotton grown in drought prone areas will be subjected to the effects of
climate change and expanding of salinity problem is the abiotic constraints.
Future research directions
Breeding
for Long Staple Cotton varieties
At present, 100% of
cotton in Ethiopia falls in medium long which fulfills the requirement of the
domestic industry. The major constraint to develop extra-long staple is limitation
of Gossypium barbadense germplasm in the country. But, breeders are making efforts
to develop extra-long cotton varieties from existing germplasm.
Developing
varieties suitable for mechanical harvesting
Since the start of
large scale commercial farming in Ethiopia in the 1970s, a great stride has
been made in area expansion and cotton production in the country. As a result,
cotton production showed rapid advancement from manual cultivation and
production to semi-mechanized farming. Cotton harvesting, however, remain
unchanged and is still practiced by hand picking. Nowadays it is not uncommon
to see the fully matured cotton crop remain for an extended period of time
exposed to the sun, dust, and weathering and many other varying environmental
factors and this may continue for some time to come. Nevertheless, some private
investors are suffering from acute shortage of labor during harvesting time and
currently they are requesting for improved and, or potential promising
varieties that are adaptable to mechanical harvesting. So, breeders planned to
develop varieties suitable for mechanical harvesting in a short time.
Breeding
of abiotic tolerant varieties
Salinity
and water scarcity is the major issue not only in Ethiopia but also in the
world. The research on salinity and drought resistant/tolerant and low water
requirement varieties need to be developed for efficient utilization of
irrigation water and for the solution of expanding of salinity problem.
Hybrid
Cotton
Increase in yield and
quality is possible through exploitation of hybrid vigor. Research on
development of cotton hybrids is the regular feature of Werer
Agricultural Research Center (WARC).
Transgenic
Cotton
Transgenic cotton has
been proved not only in controlling the insect pests, particularly of bollworms
but also is environmental friendly. Adaptation of Bt
cotton will reduce the use of pesticide and ultimately reduction in cost of
production and increase in the profit of the farmers. Intensive research is
needed to develop local transgenic cotton plant for commercial cultivation in
the country. Biotechnology Department in Holeta
Agriculture research Center (HARC) is trying to get permission for conducting
research on genetically modified cotton. In collaboration with this Department,
the Bt genes will be transferred to locally commercial
varieties.
Breeding
for Coloured Cotton
Coloured cotton of
brown, dark brown, light brown and light green colours
will be developed.
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