Silver bullet for cotton production: Made

Business Reporter
THE Presidential Cotton Input Scheme has proved to be the silver bullet to re-empowering thousands of small scale farmers that had given up growing the crop due to poor prices, Agriculture, Irrigation and Mechanisation Minister Dr Joseph Made has said.

Under the scheme — introduced during 2015 /2016 season — the Government has released over $70 million worth of inputs, through The Cotton Company of Zimbabwe and successfully lured upwards of 300 000 households back into production of cotton. This year, the Government will spend over $60 million to support farmers. The cotton sector had eventually been decimated in terms of the well-being, first and foremost, of the farmer,” said Dr Made in an interview.

“His Excellency President Robert Mugabe realised that this was a case of the farmer being short-changed on the payment side and that the farmer had really abandoned the cotton crop.

“The intervention was to give them the opportunity to recover as farmers.
“Thus the intervention with Presidential Cotton Input Scheme, and also the stabilising price so that farmers could have the full confidence of growing the crop,” Dr Made added.

The cotton industry had been locked in a vicious race to the bottom. Inadequate levels of inputs and agronomic support led to low yields and subsequently high side-marketing, which culminated in poor debt recovery.

Poor debt recoveries resulted in contractors perceiving a higher level of risk and consequently cutting back on the value of inputs financing. This further compounded the problem of low yields, resulting in massive reduction of production. The low crop size further compounded contractors’ challenges with overhead absorption, resulting in poor producer prices.

After local cotton prices plunged to as low as 30 cents per kilogramme a few years ago, farmers sought protection in other crops such like maize, tobacco and ground nuts. The switch was a bad one, as crops failed because they were grown in the wrong agro-zone, one that favours cotton, instead.

However, since the input plan started, cotton prices have climbed to US47c per kg this season as the base price, with national output expected to reach 80 000 tonnes in 2017 from 30 000 tonnes achieved last year.

This is a 166 percent jump from last year’s production. And for Cottco, cotton production increased over five-fold from about 10 000 tonnes last season to 52 000 this season.

While Government had initially projected an output of 110 000 tonnes, excessive rains received last season, abuse of inputs by some farmers and smuggling of the crop to neighbouring Mozambique saw the targets revised downwards to 80 000 tonnes.

Dr Made said cotton production had become unattractive due to poor farming practices, too much liberty in the cotton industry, as well as poor economic policies of the past.

“On the other hand, farmers were no longer complying with the proper husbandry of growing cotton,” Dr Made explained.
“Cotton is totally dependent on religiously following the agronomic patterns, particularly where it relates to pests, insects and disease control.” He continued: “I think on the part of the Government we had also overly liberalised the cotton sector.

Hence, the Presidential Cotton Input Scheme included the aspect of saying we must now include the re-establishment of the Cotton Marketing Board monopoly primarily aimed at reducing the number of players who interact with the farmers.

“Our problems started with Esap, when all the parastatals that are related to the control of the agriculture sector were removed.
‘‘So we are going to see an immediate re-establishment of the Cotton Marketing Board to protect the gains of the Presidential Scheme.”

The Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (Esap) of the early 1990s was a World Bank-sponsored project that aimed to disengage Government’s hold on key factors of production to enhance more participation in the economy by the private sector. Targeting to boost economic growth and to create new jobs, ESAP achieved exactly the opposite.

Dr Made said cotton was very vital to the farmer and economy as it employed thousands of people in its value chain, as well it was a food crop that produced edible oils and stock feed, and was key to textile production.

“Agronomically there are parts of the country that are suitable for cotton growing.
‘‘So we have undermined the farmer who cannot grow any other crop except cotton as a major cash crop to them,” he said.