* Output has rebounded since end of political crisis
* Poor crop last season dealt revival a setback
* Saddled with debt, some farmers cutting back on cotton
By Loucoumane Coulibaly
SOHOUO, Ivory Coast, May 10 (Reuters) - Farmers in Ivory Coast said on Tuesday they were reluctant to plant for the 2016/17 cotton season after last year's poor crop saddled them with debts, potentially endangering an expected rebound in production.
Ivory Coast, the world biggest cocoa producer, was also one of Africa's major cotton exporters, producing around 400,000 tonnes each year before a 2002-2003 civil war split the country in two and halved production.
Output has steadily increased since a decade of political turmoil ended in 2011, reaching roughly 450,000 tonnes of unginned cotton in the 2014/15 season. The government is targeting production of 600,000 tonnes by 2020.
But output fell by more than 30 percent last season to around 310,000 tonnes, a drop ginners blamed on heavy rains at the wrong time.
"We're discouraged by cotton. The problem isn't the rain. We think that its bad seeds and fertiliser," said Bakari Sekongo, standing beside his weed-filled plot near the village of Sohouo in Ivory Coast's northern cotton belt.
"Not only did many plants die after we sprayed, but the yield didn't even reach 800 kilograms per hectare. That's rare here," he said, adding that Ivorian farmers typically see yields of around one tonne per hectare.
With the arrival of the first rains earlier this month, farmers are now beginning to plant this season's crop, and Intercoton, Ivory Coast's association of cotton ginners and farmers, says it expects output will resume its gradual rise.
"For the new harvest, the goal is to get back to the 450,000 tonnes we reached in the 2014/15 season," Intercoton's board chairman Tuo Lacina said, recognising that many in the sector were hurt by last season's poor crop.
"There were losses for everyone, for the farmers, the transporters, the ginners," he said.
However, many farmers said that the cotton they harvested last season did not even cover what they owed ginners for seeds, fertiliser and pesticides.
"We can no longer cover some expenses within the family ... We still owe the ginners. It's hard being in debt before the season even starts," said Fanhirigue Fatogoma, a farmer in the village of Tongon.
With other options available -- including northern Ivory Coast's new cash crop, cashews -- some farmers, such as Karna Coulibaly, are planning to reduce their dependence on cotton.
"Lots of farmers don't want to grow it again because they are in debt after the bad season," said Karna, 41, who farms outside the village of Sekonkaha.
"I'm not going to plant 11 hectares like last season. I'm going to reduce it to five hectares because my losses were too high." (Editing by Joe Bavier and Louise Heavens)
