Although many small developing countries produce cotton, about five countries produce most of the fiber. China and India alone account for nearly half the global output of cotton. Four small African countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, and Mali) formed the Cotton-4 or C-4 consortium many years ago to complain about the subsidies for cotton employed by richer countries. They are not wrong but the C-4+ (now including Côte d'Ivoire) produce just 3.5 percent of the world’s cotton. It doesn’t help that the yield and quality of C-4 cotton is much poorer than larger producers. In response, larger cotton nations refocused the debate on helping C-4 countries improve their output. The “Partenariat pour le Coton”...
The Alaska marmot (Marmota broweri), also known as the Brooks Range marmot[3] or the Brower's marmot,[4] is a species of rodent in the family Sciuridae. Once considered to be the same species as the hoary marmot, it is now known to be unique. Alaska marmots are found in the scree slopes of the...
From WPI Consulting
Illuminating the value of technical research
On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.