Changing the narrative on Africa.
As Benin consolidates its position as one of West Africa’s leading cotton producers, towns such as Banikoara thrive during the six-month ginning season. Workers and businesses are now looking for ways to turn this seasonal activity into more stable, year-round livelihoods.
Young entrepreneurs in South Kivu are building a domestic market for Congolese coffee by processing beans locally, strengthening their brands and encouraging consumers to buy locally. Their businesses are creating opportunities for young people and women while reducing reliance on export markets.
By introducing traditional fabrics into school, judicial and military uniforms, as well as some public-service attire, Burkina Faso is seeking to create a sustainable market for locally processed cotton. The policy could support spinning mills, women weavers and garment workshops, provided the sector can meet the required volumes, prices and deadlines.
Farmers are returning to cotton in coastal Kenya, while a new ginnery and one of the country’s few surviving integrated textile mills are rebuilding links from field to factory.
As rainfall becomes less predictable, researchers are developing improved seed, testing more efficient irrigation and using digital tools to track water losses. Getting these solutions to farmers could protect harvests and provide Ethiopia’s textile factories with more locally grown fibre.
Kenyan businesses and community groups are turning discarded cotton stalks, gin waste and textile offcuts into briquettes, household textiles and mattress filling. The emerging industry could create new income for farmers and women-led enterprises.
Africa’s citrus industry is expanding production while opening new routes into global markets. From Southern Africa to North Africa, growers are investing in orchards, processing and market access as competition for buyers intensifies.
African producers are racing to supply cotton that buyers can trace from its country of origin as global scrutiny of supply chains intensifies.
Cotton farmers in eastern Uganda are bypassing village middlemen and selling collectively or directly to ginneries. The emerging model is giving growers greater control over weighing, payment and market access – and helping women turn seasonal cotton earnings into education, land, homes and productive assets.
Four years ago, Ugandan engineer Shifra Ainomugisha, now 28, turned the rotten tomatoes of her childhood into a climate-smart business. This year she received the Commonwealth’s top youth honour.