In Côte d’Ivoire, agriculture is mostly rain-fed. As a result, changes and variations of climate have considerable impacts on crops production including cotton production. This paper focuses on analyzing the effects of rainfall variations on the cropping season (useful rain season) of cotton in cotton production area of Côte d’Ivoire. A set of stationarity tests was applied to the Nicholson index using rainfall data of the period 1950-2000. Then, from a frequency analyses, the variability of rainfall and characteristic parameters of the cropping season was evaluated in terms of risks. The result shows a general downward trend of rainfall in the cotton growing area with years of breaks between 1964 and 1975. Moreover, spatial evolution of the cropping season parameters is a function of latitude. After the years of breaks, the beginning and the end of the cotton cropping season, which became respectively later and earlier, indicated that the length of useful rain season became shorter. The deficits of seasonal rainfall accumulations vary up to 60%. It is therefore necessary to update the crop calendar by taking into account variability of parameters of the useful rain season.

In order to update knowledge on the spatio-temporal evolution of Thaumatotibia leucotreta, the geographical areas and seasons of predilection of adult and larval populations have been studied in the last six years from 2012 to 2017. Monitoring of natural adult populations revealed that populations were more abundant in the southern cotton production area as compared to the north. A Monitoring of larval infestations showed that infestations occurred on cotton at the end of august (0.10 larvae/100 bolls) and increased gradually during october-november (0.31 to 0.93 larvae/100 bolls), indicating a strong relationship between evolution of adult and larval populations and cotton phenology. Early sowings exhibited higher infestation levels (0.87 larvae/100 bolls). Annual variations of pest infestation levels increased from years to years, from 0.23 to 0.49 larvae/100 bolls over the study period. Mapping the geographic distribution of infestations showed highest pest densities in the southern zone, mostly in surrounding areas of Boron (1.52 larvae/100 bolls). With regard to the emerging status of T. leucotreta over recent years, the current pyrethroid resistance management strategy deserves to be improved on the basis of the pest geographic and seasonal profiles.

Dekoula et al., J. Appl. Biosci. 2018 Variabilité des descripteurs pluviométriques intrasaisonniers à impact agricole dans le bassin cotonnier de Côte d'Ivoire : zones de Boundiali, Korhogo et Ouangolo ABSTRACTObjective: This study aims to characterize the evolution of agricultural impact intra-seasonal descriptors during the growing season in cotton production area of Côte d'Ivoire. For this purpose, Methodology and results: ten intraseasonal descriptors likely to influence agriculture were determined from rainfall data covering the periods 1951-2000 and 2011-2016 from the Airport, Aeronautical and Meteorological Development and Operations Company and the National Agronomic Research Center. Trend (Mann-Kendall) and stationarity (Pettitt) tests and an inter-period comparison were applied to the identified variables. Analysis of seasonal rainfall accumulations, number of rainy days and average daily rainfall amounts showed a significant downward trend over the period 1951-2000. The cessation and length of the rainy season showed a significant trend towards early onset and shortening respectively. Other intraseasonal descriptors do not varied significantly. In contrast, statistically significant breaks were observed between 1968 and 1979. The period comparison indicated a deterioration in conditions during the dry period . The comparison of the periods indicates a deterioration of the climatic conditions during the dry period . These degradations have increased in the current period (2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015)(2016). Conclusion and application: New climatic conditions observed in the cotton production area translated by a variability of intraseasonal descriptors are making agricultural planning increasingly difficult. It is therefore necessary to update the crop calendars in the cotton production area.