An analysis of the organizational linkages in the cotton industry in Benin

A study of the institutional context of the cotton industry in Benin was conducted in 2004, based on an analysis of stakeholders' interests and influence. The impacts on innovation processes and production systems are analysed with respect to farmers' organizations, the research and extension system and the economics of cotton production. The methodology includes qualitative tools and analytic frameworks applied to data from five villages in two municipalities. The reforms undertaken since 1990 to improve efficiency formally could be expected to lead to a harmonized system. But stakeholders' conflicting interests and personal strategies, more or less bound to networks organized as alliances, subvert the aim of the reform and have led to a further, unplanned restructuring. As things stand now, the cotton industry encompasses the conventional network and a breakaway network of stakeholders. In both, the primary stakeholders are the producers. They are directly affected by any change, but they have little power or influence. The study concludes that neither the reform process nor the unplanned restructuring have been favourable to producers. We argue that unless farmers are assisted to a change in their production system, to release their dependence on production credit and pesticide inputs, they cannot be effective partners.