Rainfed cotton regions face biggest climate impacts

WASHINGTON – Extensively rainfed cotton growing regions such as Africa and Brazil will be hardest hit by climate change impacts – this was one of the conclusions of Kai Hughes, director of the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC), answering questions on cotton and climate change. “Rainfed cotton will be worst hit due to disrupted rain patterns and more than half of the global cotton area is under rainfed cotton,” said Hughes. “More than 95 per cent of the cotton area in Africa and Brazil is rainfed. The rest of the rainfed cotton area is in India and United States, where 65 percent of the cotton acreage is fully dependent on rainfall.”