Preliminary results about narrow row cotton in Mali

Eight experiments about narrow row cotton were carried throughout the Malian cotton growing area during the 2001 and 2002 rainy seasons. Tested plant populations ranged from 3.5 to 17.2 plants per m2. At individual plant level, unfavorable effects of plant population increases were noticed. However, at field level, cotton plots with plant density above 7.0 plants per m2 yielded 40.6% more seed cotton than lower densities. No LAI improvement or unfavorable conditions (poor soil water availability, heavy pest infestation) during production elaboration are suspected to be responsible for non significant differences in few trials. High plant population increases were always associated with improvements of cotton production earliness which might help many Malian farmers in facing two major constraints of their cotton production: the shortness of the rainy season and heavy pest infestations at the end of the rainy season. However the situations for which high plant populations might be profitable must still be specified because of a more determined cotton cycle. (Resume d'auteur)