Varietal development for varied stakeholders needs in the liberalized cotton industry of Uganda

Abstract

During the period 1994-2001 four cotton varieties BPA 95, BPA 97, BPA 99, and BPA 2000 have been developed. This rapid out-turn has been catalyzed by a number of factors. The liberalization of the cotton industry in 1994 enabled privatization of local marketing, processing and export of lint. The private operators came up with demands for particular characteristics required for running the industry profitably. The immediate response by scientists was the recommendation for adoption of BPA types for all production areas beginning 1997. The breeders turned to the early generation testing (EGT) technique for reducing the time for developing a new variety. Another strategy was fast multiplication of varieties for quick exploitation of the new attributes by the stakeholders. In the new varieties boil weights have risen from <5.00 g to >6.0 g and ginning out turn (GOT) from 34% to 39% in varieties BPA 89 and BPA 2000 respectively. Farmers’ yields of over 3,000 kg ha^-1 have been recorded under good management. The varieties have strong fibres (30g/tex ^-1), with staple lengths at ≥ 30mm and micronaire values at 3.5 - 4.0 giving strong yarns of about 2,000 correlated linear strength product (CLSP). The above attributes arising from research have contributed to increased national production from 2,160 to 26,000 MT of lint between 1988 and 2000. Between 1995 and 1999 Uganda earned US S 82 million from lint exports and 2.5 million Ugandans now depend on cotton for source of income.