Rains have been good in the cocoa zones since late March when the tropical country's rainy season began, but cotton farmers in the arid north say rains they were awaiting in June, to enable their seeds to germinate, failed to arrive on time.

"Crops' water needs are less and less satisfied," said Brou Kouame, agro-meteorologist at the National Agronomic Research Centre (CNRA) at a joint press conference on climate change held with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and national weather agency Sodexam.

"For the cotton in the north these last few years, the sowing periods are less respected. Harvests are late and there are serious insect problems. There is a prolonged drop in cocoa output in some zones," Kouame said.

Experts at the news conference proposed the development of plant species more resistant to dry conditions, shifting sowing and harvesting periods according to weather conditions, irrigation, and planting of perennial producers such as rubber.