Cameroon’s cotton sector is combining improved seed varieties with nature-based farming practices as producers seek to protect yields, restore soil health and adapt to increasingly unpredictable weather across the country’s northern cotton-growing regions.
The approach brings together two elements of agricultural resilience that are often treated separately: improved crop genetics and better management of the land in which those crops grow. Farmers are adopting certified cotton seed alongside practices such as maintaining trees in fields, retaining crop residues, reducing tillage and planting along contours to slow water runoff and improve moisture retention.
Certified seed is central to the strategy. Cotton farmers in the northern production belt are using R1 certified seed, the first generation of certified planting material produced for commercial multiplication. Improved varieties such as IRMA Q302, IRMA A2188, IRMA Z2347 and IRMA D2A39 are being used to raise productivity and improve the quality of harvested cotton. Farmers using the improved varieties have reported heavier bolls and stronger seed development compared with traditional planting material.
But improved genetics alone cannot fully protect yields when rainfall becomes erratic, and soils lose their capacity to retain water. Farmers are therefore incorporating Faidherbia albida and other trees into cotton fields. The trees can contribute organic matter, provide shade, and supply fodder during the dry season while remaining compatible with crop production when appropriately managed.
Soil and water conservation practices are also becoming part of cotton production. Contour planting, in which crops are established across rather than down slopes, can slow water movement and reduce erosion while allowing more rainfall to infiltrate the soil. Farmers are also encouraged to leave crop residues on fields and reduce unnecessary soil disturbance, helping maintain soil structure and organic matter.
The shift is being reinforced by wider sustainable-cotton programmes in northern Cameroon. One initiative operating in the region is supporting about 45,000 smallholder cotton farmers to adopt regenerative practices, including converting crop residues into biochar enriched with biofertiliser, introducing climate-resilient cotton varieties and using neem-based biopesticides. The programme runs from 2022 to 2027.
The need for greater resilience is becoming more urgent as the cotton sector faces a combination of climate and biological pressures. Heavy rainfall and flooding have affected production in some areas, while cotton jassids and other pests have caused additional damage. Changing rainfall patterns and declining soil fertility are adding further pressure to farmers operating in the northern cotton belt.
The sector remains economically significant. Cameroon has approximately 160,000 cotton farmers, producing around 250,721 tonnes of seed cotton and 103,156 tonnes of cotton fibre annually, according to recent industry reporting. The state-owned cotton company SODECOTON is targeting further expansion, with a goal of 440,000 tonnes of seed cotton in the 2026/27 season and an eventual target of 600,000 tonnes by 2029/30.
Yet production growth must be matched by stronger farm economics. Farmers face rising costs for seed, fertiliser and crop-protection products, while producer prices do not always increase at the same pace. Many inputs are supplied through credit arrangements and recovered when cotton is sold, meaning higher yields must ultimately translate into sufficient margins for farmers to remain invested in the crop.
NBF Insight
Cameroon’s cotton experience shows that climate resilience is not necessarily a choice between modern agricultural technology and nature-based farming.
Improved varieties can raise the genetic potential of a crop, but healthier soils, better water retention and reduced erosion help farmers realise that potential when weather conditions become less predictable.
The combination is particularly relevant for African smallholders, where expensive external inputs cannot always provide the entire answer to climate risk.
For Cameroon, the emerging model is therefore about building a cotton production system in which better genetics, healthier soils, trees, water management and farmer economics work together. The long-term measure of success will be whether that combination can raise productivity while keeping cotton farming profitable and resilient under a changing climate.
