For Immediate Release
Date Posted: 3 December 2018
Executive Summary
The ICAC’s 77th Plenary Meeting:
ICAC’s Opens Its 77th
Plenary Meeting in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire
Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire — The International Cotton Advisory Committee’s (ICAC)
opened its 77th Plenary Meeting here today with a welcome message
from Côte
d’Ivoire’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr. Mamadou SANGAFOWA
COULIBALY.
He welcomed the 160+ people
who travelled from
their home countries to Abidjan for the
conference, as well as the 160+ Ivoirians in attendance. He also emphasised how important cotton
is to Côte
d'Ivoire, which is one of the country’s top agricultural crops.
ICAC
Executive Director Kai Hughes also addressed the audience, stressing how
critical Côte
d’Ivoire and all of Africa are to the future of cotton. ‘It is no
secret that some of the lowest yields in the world occur in Africa’, he said.
‘If we look at Africa as a whole and increase yields in all African countries
to the global average, it would result in an additional 2 million tonnes for
Africa alone. This is something that the ICAC can have a direct impact on by
offering advice to farmers and governments in Africa through its country audits
and yield awareness training programmes.’
The Inaugural Session also included a speech from the President of the Organising Committee, Dr. Adama Coulibaly, Director General of Cotton and Cashew Council, and a World Cotton Market Update from the members of the ICAC Secretariat.
As is tradition at Plenary
Meetings, the ICAC officially recognised its 2018 Cotton Researcher of the
Year, Dr. Baohong Zhang, a Professor
of Biology at East Carolina University, Greenville, USA. Dr. Zhang is one of
the major contributors to breeding transgenic Bt cotton in China.
He developed five cotton cultivars that already are being used in China and
several other Asian countries. The cultivars continue to generate huge economic
benefits for cotton farmers.
The opening day of the
conference concluded with a reception and fashion show, providing an elegant
and modern interpretation of traditional Ivoirian style.
Media contact: Mike McCue, ICAC Director of Communications,
+1-330-357-1199 or mike@icac.org.
About the International
Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC)
Formed in 1939, the ICAC is an association of
cotton producing, consuming and trading countries. It acts as a catalyst for
change by helping member countries maintain a healthy world cotton economy;
provides transparency to the world cotton market by serving as a clearinghouse
for technical information on cotton production; and serves as a forum for
discussing cotton issues of international significance. The ICAC does not have
a role in setting market prices or in intervening in market mechanisms. For
more information, please visit www.icac.org.