Zvamaida Murwira

Senior Writer

There is need for a holistic approach in dealing with the plight of cotton farmers who are facing a myriad of challenges that now threaten viability of producing the crop.

A visit by Parliament’s portfolio committee on Agriculture, Water and Resettlement to Nemangwe and Chitekete business centres in Gokwe district recently was an eye opener to the challenges facing growers.

Cotton growers are a dedicated lot and their commitment is unquestionable. They have not given up growing the crop despite the falling lint prices and the skyrocketing input cost.

Their call is to have their plight addressed in order to salvage the pride and viability that goes with producing the crop. The committee, chaired by Gokwe Nembudziya MP Cde Justice Mayor Wadyajena went to Gokwe recently to have an appreciation of the key concerns of cotton farmers.

This was after cotton producers and marketers national association chairperson, Mr Steward Mubonderi wrote to Parliament highlighting challenges cotton farmers were going through.

During the tour, farmers commended Government’s decision to provide free inputs through Cottco, saying that had gone a long way in creating a potential of transforming their livelihoods.

This is so because over the years they have been haunted by the headache of how they would procure the inputs given that prices were out of reach.

Government unveiled a cotton Presidential Input and Tillage scheme about two years ago where each farmer received a 20kg bag of cotton seed, three bags of basal and top dressing fertiliser, a knapsack sprayer, different kinds of chemicals and empty bales, all for free.

Farmers told legislators that the noble gesture by Government might be jeopardised by late delivery of the inputs in some cases, hence the need for timely distribution.

One cotton farmer, Mr Steven Musekiwa bemoaned the late payment of their crop by Cottco, saying it left them with no choice but to sell it to fly-by-night buyers who would entice them to side-market their produce.

“We have a contractual obligation to sell our products to Cottco, but if the firm fails to move on time to pay us, some unscrupulous buyers would want to take advantage of that. Here at Nemangwe business centre they are coming during the middle of the night offering to buy our cotton produce. So the issue of timeous announcement of producer prices and buying the product is important,” said Mr Musekiwa.

Another concern raised by farmers was the need to offer a viable producer price for cotton which could help restore the pride traditionally associated with growing the crop in this district.

They appealed to Government to consider increasing the producer price currently pegged at $43/kg coupled with US$10 per bale.

It was their view that Government should either raise the producer price or facilitate access to cheap goods and services or paying them in foreign currency to hedge against inflation being the other alternative.

“In the past when we sold our cotton, we would be able to buy ploughs, cattle, scotch-carts or even refurbish our homes,” said Mr Brown Makacha.

Farmers also bemoaned the withdrawal threshold of $5 000 per day from mobile money platforms such as EcoCash which they felt was too low given the inflationary environment and the price of capital goods.

“With the $5 000 daily withdrawal limit for EcoCash, I would need about two weeks of withdrawing money from EcoCash to pay capital goods pegged at around $50 000 such as scotch-carts. By the time you would have withdrawn that money, the price might have been raised given the inflationary environment we are in,” said Mr Lovemore Chikosi.

Lawmakers were also told that cotton farmers had not been spared on the rejection of low denominations of Zimbabwean dollar notes by unscrupulous traders.

Another thorny issue was the need for Treasury to channel resources in Gokwe towards the improvement of local infrastructure such as road network, schools, clinics and water sources.

This, the farmers said, would help them to make meaningful contribution to the national fiscus through growing of the lint.

“We have been exploited by EcoCash agents who levy premiums in order to access cash. There is also a challenge of three-tier pricing — cash price, EcoCash and US dollar. EcoCash agents are taking advantage of shortage of cash to charge us high premiums for us to get cash,” said Mr Lovemore Muzondiwa.

Legislators also heard that Cottco and other buying firms had stopped making payments following a recent suspension of mobile money platforms by the central bank.

Cotton buying firms told legislators that they had stopped paying cotton farmers for their produce after Government suspended bulk payments and EcoCash merchants in its bid to stamp out illicit money transactions.

Cottco business manager, Ms Praise Makombore, told legislators that they were unable to make payments to farmers because of the suspension of the mobile money platforms.

“We had just started paying cotton farmers when Government suspended bulk payments for mobile money platforms.

“You will realise that the mobile money platform was the only means through which we were paying farmers given that most of them have no bank accounts. We have since stopped the payments because our mobile lines have been disabled following the suspension,” said Ms Makombore.

She also said Government ought to provide funding on time to help the company to growers on time before the quality of the cotton crop deteriorated.

Ms Makombore said this was so because they were not allowed to remove the cotton from buying points before they fully pay farmers.

After listening to an array of challenges, Cde Wadyajena told the farmers and firms that they will engage Finance and Economic Development Minister, Prof Mthuli Ncube and Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor, Dr John Mangudya, to establish what they were doing to assist farmers to continue accessing their money.

“We have heard your concerns. They are quite legitimate, particularly the effect of suspending bulk payments, how it has impacted on you as cotton farmers.

“We will therefore engage Prof Ncube and Dr Mangudya. We want to find out what mitigatory measures they were taking to address that. Thereafter we will compile a report before the plenary of Parliament with our recommendations,” he said.

More than 180 000 small-scale farmers are growing cotton to sustain their livelihoods but falling world cotton lint prices, rising production costs and low returns have continued to subdue cotton production in Zimbabwe and most other African countries. About 98 percent of the cotton grown in Zimbabwe is exported in its raw form.

Zimbabwe’s cotton production has dropped from an estimated 400 000 tonnes annually at its peak a few years ago to 200 000 tonnes now.

The decline has been attributed to a combination of factors, lack of suitable hybrid varieties, including lower prices for the crop and drought.