Since 2018, the government of President Patrice Talon has been doing its utmost to maintain its position as the leading cotton producer in West Africa. In this race, the other sectors, including cashew nuts and pineapple, barely benefit from the country's agricultural policy. The current government of Benin, in its vision of increasing the production and processing of cotton, cannot balance the scales for all the priority agricultural sectors. With more than 700,000 tonnes harvested, Benin has remained the leading cotton producer in West Africa since 2018 with a target of 800,000 tonnes for the next campaign.
These efforts of the executive to develop the sector which represents 25% of the GDP, is not felt for the other sectors. Despite their good performance, cashew (from 91,608 tonnes in 2015 to 130,276 in 2019), soybeans (from 139,909 tonnes in 2015 to 257,000 in 2019), corn and rice, as well as market garden crops ( from 633,862 tons in 2015 to 706,346 in 2019) could not capture as many resources as cotton.