West African cotton crop up

The French-speaking nations of West Africa will produce a record cotton harvest of 4.72 million bales in 2004/05, up 6 percent from last year, the US Agriculture Department said on Thursday. The previous record was set in 2001/02 with an output of 4.50 million bales. "This year many West African grain farmers suffered from the worst locust invasion in 15 years, but most cotton farmers were not terribly affected as the locust invaded the northern Sahelian belt and major cotton regions are located further south," the USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service said in a special report.