Déterminants économiques et sociaux de choix de la culture cotonnière et de son intensification dans un contexte de crise de la filière en Centrafrique

Economic and Social Determinants of the Cotton Culture Choice and its Intensification in a Context of Crisis of the Sector in the Central African Republic. The cotton farms in crisis, because of the decrease of the price of cotton and the increase in prices of the inputs, develop various adaptive strategies: some abandoned cotton or reduced its surface to develop the strategies of livestock, marketed oriented foodstuffs or diversification of the activities but others develop the intensive cotton strategy. The objective of the paper is to find out the determinants of the cotton cultural choice and its intensification during the crisis and to propose some support to the producers. To reach this objective, econometric analyses are conducted based on surveys of 350 farms. The results show that the economic and social variables have a positive impact on the probability of cotton choice in the situation of crisis. The analysis of the sensitivity of this probability shows that the economic variables have the strongest marginal effects. As for the intensification, the results show that the social variable as experience in cotton cultivation and the economic variables are determinants in the period of crisis. Thus, the large size farms, having a long experience in cotton, develop the intensive cotton strategy during the crisis. Support for accompanying this strategy in a period of crisis would improve the results of these farms.