For the first time, in 2001, Francophone African countries were globally ranking second in the world in exporting cotton.These countries are however engaged into a period of uncertain and unstable evolution of the institutional frameworks oftheir cotton productions whose outcome could be a consolidation of this new exporting position or in the opposite a total collapse.Drastic changes are observed in pricing mechanisms, provision of inputs and credit to farmers, orientation and financingof research activities, diffusion of technical messages to farmers. These changes imply modifications in responsibilitiessharing between stakeholders and they are not always welcomed, either by part of them or by all of them. They are still toorecent to predict properly what future will be.In the concerned countries, several actions are implemented to help pass through successfully the current transitional period.In most countries, establishment of negotiation devices are promoted to help cotton sector stakeholders find out collectivelynew institutional arrangements that may be acceptable to all and adapted to the cotton production environment. Meanwhile,strengthening of farmers' organizations or institutions is engaged in view of assisting them in taking charge of more responsibilitieswithin new institutional arrangements. Research actions are also implemented to help assess cotton sectors performanceunder diversified institutional frameworks following a common analytical framework and assist in information exchangebetween Francophone African countries
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