Almost 10 % of the world's cotton is grown in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), the world's fourth largest cotton exporter following the USA, India and Uzbekistan. The Sahel states along the southern belt of the Sahara alone generate $1.5 billion each year by exporting cotton, which accounts for up to 35-75% of the agricultural export earnings in this region, making this natural fiber one of the most important agricultural exports on the African continent next to coffee and cocoa. In western and southern Africa, cotton is cultivated exclusively by smallholder farmers (app. 3 million in number).

All in all, as many as 20 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) live either directly or indirectly from cotton farming. In the SSA countries, cotton is mostly grown through rain-fed farming, which makes cotton production more sustainable than in other parts of the world where irrigation is used. In SSA cotton is also grown in rotation with staple foods (such as grain, corn and sorghum), a key difference when compared to the cotton fields covering several square kilometers and serving as permanent monocultures desolating entire landscapes (as seen in Uzbekistan). The African smallholder cotton farmers use considerably less pesticides than as found on large cotton plantations. In contrast to cotton production in the USA, Europe and China, most of the African cotton is grown without the help of government subsidies.
Cotton plays a key role in fighting poverty in Africa. 95 % of the African cotton farmers have an income per day of less than 1.5 USD. So far, however, only limited use has been made of the potential of the cotton sector for poverty alleviation and commercial development. In the past the competitiveness of African cotton has been significantly impaired by various factors and cotton farmers facing several challenges. High subsidies by some cotton world market suppliers reduced the competitiveness of African countries.