Cotton Protection

Ethiopia has enormous untapped cotton production potential due to the availability of land with suitable climate conditions, trainable manpower, thriving textile industries, and long cotton culture with attractive government incentives indicating that there is huge potential for further cotton production development plan. However, Ethiopia now accounts for only 5% of total cotton production in Africa, having recently cultivated only 4% of the total suitable due to a variety of limiting factors. Because current national cotton production is much lower than its potential, but textile factories are increasing in number, the country is forced to import from other producing countries. Furthermore, the most common cotton production limiting biotic factors and management options in Ethiopia have not been well documented. As a result, this chapter provides a detailed explanation of the most important biotic limiting factors (diseases, insect pests, and weeds) as well as possible management options for future interventions for the development of Ethiopia's textile industry as well as cotton production itself.