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<E.Ross@alakhawayn.ma> I strongly concur with William Moseley's assessment of the environmental impacts of mono-crops/cash-crops/export-oriented agricultural production, and especially of cotton production in areas prone to aridity and rain deficits. Intensification of cotton production in Chad in the 1970s and 80s contributed in no small measure to the virtual disappearance of the Lake Chad. Cotton consumes great amounts of water at key moments in its growth. Just as in Mali, the push to increase production (and national revenue) by extending the areas where this mono crop is grown has had a negative impact on soils and on water tables in the Chad basin. While the evils of Soviet mismanagement were roundly condemned in the international media after the Aral Sea catastrophe, the analogous disappearance of Lake Chad has gone largely unnoticed. Is capitalist (or free market) mismanagement, centrally planned from Washington D.C., not to be blamed ? While I don't suggest that there are any easy solutions to the perennial economic and fiscal crises in countries like Mali and Chad, I am under no illusions about the benefits of the free market for countries tied to commodity crops.
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