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Data summaries and fast facts
In this page:
General facts and figures - Economic, Social and Environment and Health data - Cotton production systems facts and figures
| Land area |
Harvests/Production |
Yields |
production regions |
| 2.4% of world agricultural area, 31 million hectares(76 million acres)1 |
2004/5: 25 million tonnes2 3
45% of cotton is grown on farms smaller than 6ha4
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Average over 600kg/hectare worldwide5
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Over 100 countries produce cotton
Major producers: China, USA, India, Pakistan and Brazil
Major regions: Central and South East Asia, West Africa, North and South America6
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| Farmer profiles/region |
Trends |
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20 million farmers totally depend on cotton, 30 million with cotton in rotation7
USA: 25,000 cotton farmers, Australia 1100 farmers, West Africa: 2 million , India 4 million, Pakistan 1.3 million; China has 14 million cotton farmers, Turkey, 300,000 8
A total of 125 million people globally are directly dependent for their livelihood on cotton production 9
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40-47% of world's fibre needs 10 11
73% of production is irrigated (53% of area) 12
500-950 litres of water per square metre 13
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Issues in cotton production: Economic - social - environmental
| Economic |
Social |
Environmental/Health |
| Average economic pest damage in cotton: 15% of crop1 |
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Few farmers and workers in developing countries (India, West Africa) seek or can access medical care for pesticides poisoning 11 12; 50-90% of cotton workers in many countries report some symptoms of poisoning from synthetic chemicals in cotton13 14 15 |
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In Pakistan, cotton and textiles generate 60% of export income 7
In Benin, cotton represents 8.8% of GDP; in Turkey, it is 4%8
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40,000 annual deaths by pesticides9 |
Chinese cotton fields are sprayed with chemicals an average of 20 times per year16 |
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Children whose parents use pesticides for home and garden have 7 times higher leukemia risk10
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8-10% of total pesticides 4, and 22.5-25% of insecticides specifically, used on cotton worldwide17
25% of pesticides in the USA are used on cotton, which constiutes 4% of agricultual land 18
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In Uzbekistan in 1995, up to 54.6kg of chemicals were applied to cotton per hectare 19 |
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The most commonly used pesticides globally in cotton are:
Parathion, cypermethrin, methyl-o-dematon, methamidophos, monocrotophos, thiofanex, triazophos (WHO toxicity ClassI), bifenthrin, carbosulfan, chlorpyrifos, cyfluthrin, deltamethrin, dimethoate, endosulfan, fenvalerate, fipronil, imidacloprid, lambdacyhalothrine, paraquat, dichloride, profenophos, quinalphos, thiodicarb, and other organophosphates and synthetic pyrethroids (WHO toxicity class II) alachlor, amitraz, clomazone, dicofol, dimethipin, fluchloralin, malathion, metolachlor, MSMA, Pendimethalin, sodium chlorate and other organophsophates and synthetic pyrethroids (Who toxicity class III), as well as several chemicals in classes U and O (obsolete) and some not listed at all5 follow the footnote links to see which countries use which pesticides most commonly or go straight to the article, page 42 table 20 21 22.
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Up to 8,000 different chemicals can be used in the processing and production of cotton textiles 23 |
Production systems
| Organic |
IPM/ICM |
Conventional chemical |
GM |
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20% of cotton planted worldwide is GM 4 - some grown under IPM/ICM approaches, notably in Australia 1
80% of US and Australian cotton is GM 2
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