Agronomy and the structure of the African cotton production : from the decolonization to the liberalization of the cotton industry After World War II, both the cropping of cotton and the subsequent processing were established in most western and central African countries. These companies, gradually developed to be as important as the States themselves, integrating all the various segments of an agricultural industry on top of additional functions such as the granting of financial facilities up to the rural development. Weakened since the beginning of the 90’s by some policy changes of the World Bank and the shock wave of the liberalization, these organizations have evolved along different ways according to each particular country. Yet, all of them have moved from a unique, integrated organization towards a number of economic segments among which farmers associations are playing a primary role. In terms of agricultural reseach, this transition has been accompanied by deep modifications in the demand as well as in the technical approaches. Today most scientific know how in this field has been developed by Northern research institutes, however, for use in their own national agriculture. As the terminology and the main concepts basically apply to that given social organization, they need to be revisited for application under the conditions of countries in the South. This is what the authors are trying to do based on an historical analysis of the main evolutions of the companies involved.