Young green cotton bolls developing on plants in Salimatou Biobou’s field on September 13, 2026. Photo: Ginette Fleur Adande, bird story agency
A project promoting certified organic cotton in Benin has reached more than 9,000 smallholder farmers since 2021 – 45% of them women. Grown without chemical fertilisers or synthetic pesticides, the crop is giving growers such as Salimatou Biobou an opportunity to restore their soil, earn a premium and control the proceeds of their harvest.
By Ginette Fleur Adandé, bird story agency
07 October 2026
Under the blazing sun in Banikoara, Benin, Salimatou Biobou walks through a cotton field that her husband once thought could produce nothing good. In September, the plants are lush and green, with the first cotton bolls beginning to appear.
Biobou has worked to restore this 1.5-hectare plot with groundnuts, animal manure and crop rotation. When she sells her certified organic cotton, the payment comes to her. She has used the money to pay school fees for two of her daughters and start a small business that helps support her family between growing seasons.
“This money belongs to me,” says the 49-year-old mother of seven.
In northern Benin, organic cotton offers some women a chance to farm with support, earn a higher price per kilogram and manage the proceeds of their work.
Banikoara is in the Alibori department, about 700 kilometres from Cotonou. Biobou began growing certified organic cotton there in 2021, on land lent to her by her husband, Samouwilou Biobou. After 15 years of cultivation, he believed the plot “could no longer produce anything good”.
“To restore the soil’s fertility, I first grew groundnuts on the plot. After harvesting them, I collected cow dung and goat droppings and spread them over the land. I also rotate my crops,” Biobou explains.
She never attended school. She learned to count through literacy classes she attended when she went to the village market.
Professor Simplice Vodouhê, president of the Beninese Organisation for the Promotion of Organic Agriculture (OBEPAB), says certified organic cotton is produced without chemical fertilisers, synthetic pesticides or genetically modified organisms.
“It relies on managing soil fertility with organic matter and locally produced biopesticides,” he says. Production must meet strict international standards and be audited and approved by an independent certification body such as Ecocert International.
Since 2021, the “Growing Benin’s Organic Cotton Sector” project, led by the Aid by Trade Foundation, has promoted certified organic cotton in the country. According to Vodouhê, more than 9,000 smallholder farmers have produced certified organic cotton through the programme over five years. Of these, 45% are women.
Biobou also receives technical support from the Association of Valiant and Active Women (AFVA-ONG). For a subsidised contribution of 25,000 CFA francs (about US$43), paid in advance, the association supplies the inputs she needs. It has taught her to make fertiliser from waste available at home.
Made up entirely of women cotton growers, AFVA-ONG has promoted organic farming in Banikoara and other northern towns since 2008. Its management and leadership training also helps growers build confidence.
In Tanguiéta, in the Atacora department to the west of Alibori, Mariama Kora, 37, has chosen to grow conventional cotton. A mother of four, she cultivates two hectares that form part of her husband’s farm.
Both women say they work ten hours a day and receive help in the fields from their children and relatives.
Biobou harvests about 800 kilograms per hectare, or 1,200 kilograms from her 1.5 hectares. “I know it isn’t much, but I chose organic cotton and I don’t intend to go back,” she says with confidence.
Kora harvests 1,700 kilograms per hectare, or 3,400 kilograms from her two hectares. She says the Interprofessional Cotton Association (AIC) supplies her chemical inputs on credit at a cost of 328,000 CFA francs (about US$569).
Organic cotton sells for 360 CFA francs (about US$0.63) per kilogram, compared with 300 CFA francs (about US$0.52) for conventional cotton. “The additional 60 CFA francs (about US$0.10) is an incentive premium,” Vodouhê says.
At those prices, Biobou’s harvest brings in 432,000 CFA francs (about US$750) before accounting for the 25,000 CFA francs (about US$43) she paid in advance for inputs. Kora’s crop brings in 1,020,000 CFA francs (about US$1,771), from which the AIC deducts the reported 328,000 CFA francs (about US$569) in input costs. That leaves 692,000 CFA francs (about US$1,201) before any other costs.
“Thanks to this, I’ve been able to pay the school fees for two of my daughters and invest in a small business that allows us to live during the off-season. The realities are the same for the other women in our group,” Biobou says.
Kora says payment for her cotton goes into her husband’s account as his name is registered with the AIC as head of the family farm.
Tamou Gani Badou, president of the National Federation of Village Cotton Producers’ Cooperatives, one of the AIC’s major components, says the arrangement follows customary practice in northern Benin.
“The management of agricultural land is governed by custom. We did not invent it. That is why payment for conventional cotton goes directly to the head of the family,” he says.
Kora says she negotiates with her husband for money to meet her needs. “I work on land that does not belong to me. It is impossible for me to manage the income it produces,” she says. “Yet I would have liked, each time, to buy myself a keepsake and be able to say it came from all those days of hard work.”
She is considering a move to organic cotton, attracted by the financial independence Biobou describes.
Access to land remains an obstacle for women growers under either model. Benin’s Land and Property Code, Law No. 2013-01, grants everyone the right to land, but customary practice often treats it as property managed by the head of the family.
“It is a Beninese paradox: agricultural wealth is written in the feminine, but ownership remains a men’s affair,” says Gabriella Hounkpatin. She leads a project advocating secure access to land for women through the West African Network of Young Women Leaders in Benin (ROAJELF).
For Biobou, a field once considered unproductive now produces cotton, income she controls and a way to support her family beyond the harvest. Her experience shows what organic cotton can offer women when technical support and direct access to payment come together.
For more growers to have that chance, organisations such as OBEPAB say women also need secure access to fertile land, reliable payment arrangements and wider technical support.
bird story agency
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