The Minister of State, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Kobenan Kouassi Adjoumani announced on April 12 that Ivorian cotton production fell by more than 50% compared to the previous season. This information confirms the concern of actors in the sector.

Malanno Kouakou, a researcher entomologist at the National Center for Agronomic Research in Côte d'Ivoire (CNRA) announced during an interview that the fall in national cotton production was mainly due to a new insect species. According to him, “we must have belonged to the Jassids family but behaved differently from the other species that we know and that we are able to control. This new species attacks several crops. It's not just cotton. Currently it is on vegetable crops, okra, eggplant, chili and other plants.” The researcher believes that the other Jasside species disappear as soon as rain sets in, which is not the case for these new pests, which are also resistant to the treatments usually used against the former. According to the specialist, this invasion of cotton plantations by insects is also linked to climate change.