Cotton Selling time

This time of year is cotton selling time. The harvest is finished and farmers are selling their cotton to Sodecoton, a French company who controls the cotton production in the north of Cameroon. They hold a monopoly, selling pesticides and fertilizer on credit and buying the cotton produced.

These are photos from my village cotton marche



Men stamping down the cotton

Villagers have noticed the difference in the cotton harvest in the past few years, watching as they collect fewer and fewer bundles. Cotton is a plant that is very rough on the soil, consuming all the nutrients and year after year the soil is degraded. Because of this, the failure of their crop, many farmers in my village are choosing to stop planting cotton.