Cottco castigates cotton merchants

The Cotton Company of Zimbabwe (Cottco) has castigated some cotton merchants for abandoning their farmers after failing to provide them with replanting seed, fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides.

Addressing farmers during the handover of a tractor, trailer and plough to the country’s best cotton farmer for 2018 in Chiredzi, Cottco southern region manager Mr Munyaradzi Chikasha said due to the unreliability of rains, most planted cotton failed to germinate, forcing farmers to replant.

“Farmers recorded poor germination percentages this season due to rainfall unreliability,” he said. “We are allocating our farmers seed to replant, but the challenge is some cotton merchants who had contracted farmers in the Lowveld have abandoned them.”

Mr Chikasha said the problem now was that the burden had since fallen on them and they were having to accommodate the affected farmers.

“We have farmers who are coming to us saying company A and B only gave us seed,” he said. “They promised to bring fertiliser and insecticides, but they never came back.

“A farmer must be allocated adequate inputs to curb the spread of diseases and pests. If this company fails to support its farmer, and fall armyworm attacks the field that would spread across the whole area just because a farmer was neglected by his preferred company.”

Addressing the same gathering, Chiredzi West MP Cde Farai Musikavanhu said cotton merchants should honour their promises to minimise side marketing during the buying period.

“Problems of side marketing can only be addressed if all companies which are interested in supporting cotton farmers fulfil all their promises,” he said. “Farmers must be issued with all inputs which would guarantee a bumper harvest for the nation.

“Cheating the farmer will not give us the best results, the problems of side marketing will be solved by looking after our farmers. We want more cotton and that cannot be produced by under supporting farmers. We must give them adequate assistance to improve our national yield.”

Southern Cotton and Zimbabwe Cotton Consortium this year registered to support farmers in the Lowveld.