Faced with falling cotton prices, governments triggered mechanisms to support their farmers. This is the case in India, which has a record production for the second consecutive year – it should even become the world’s largest producer, overtaking China …

Plentiful global supplies, thanks to favorable weather and market distortions caused by a large-scale Chinese support program for its growers, have driven prices below 60 cents a pound this year — the lowest levels since 2009 — hitting farmers around the world. And with China, the world’s largest importer, dictating the market to farmers in rich and poor countries alike, “we are more or less price takers”, says Evelyn Nguleka, head of South Africa farmers union.