Obert Chifamba

Agri-Insight

Recently, the Government set the cotton floor producer price at $43.94 per kilogramme for the 2020-2021 marketing season.

It is the manner in which the producer price will be paid out that will essentially make the difference from what has been happening in the past seasons and that alone should at least bring some smiles on the faces of farmers.

The farmer will be getting US$10 per each bale of cotton delivered, with 38 percent of the value of a 200 kilogramme bale being paid in cash and the balance transferred electronically to the farmers’ mobile money wallet accounts.

At least this will take care of the farmers’ perennial concerns that they are failing to handle hard cash from the sale of their produce every season, which in essence is true because the economy has not been performing well for a while now.

This made it difficult to have fluid liquidity, which would allow some cash to exchange hands to oil transactions.

Government has made sure that on top of this, the provision of inputs support in the production of cotton becomes part of its social protection and safety nets provision programme to alleviate the plight of marginalised rural farmers.

“All inputs for cotton producers are free,” Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa said this when she announced the new producer price.

She explained that the price would give the farmer a 15 percent return and ensure viability, while boosting the competitiveness of the cotton industry.

This is true because all the farmer needs is making available land on which to grow the crop and invest in labour, while Government takes charge of the rest through the Cotton Marketing Company of Zimbabwe (Cottco).

At the conclusion of the season, Cottco is also the buyer of the produce, which saves the farmer the hassle of looking for markets where prices are set on the international market that does not bother to factor in the conditions under which farmers would have produced the crop.

Some countries that produce the white gold give their farmers subsidies that cushion and save them from incurring losses should the season turn otherwise.

Back home, the arrangement with Cottco means that farmers are producing the crop minus basic costs of production that in previous seasons made the crop less paying than what it is expected this time around.

If the farmer is to take care of other miscellaneous costs incurred during the production of the crop, it simply means that they may not weigh down heavily on the business.

For farmers to benefit more from Government’s generous arrangement, it is wise for them to make sure they engage and work closely with extension officers so that they are not found wanting on the agronomic side of things.

The Cottco arrangement needs to be bolstered by the farmer’s commitment to ensure that it works and allow the contractor to recoup and still be able to sponsor production of the crop in the future.

There is always a tendency by unscrupulous buyers to capitalise on such good arrangements and come dangling a more enticing carrot in the form of better prices than what Cottco will be offering, so farmers need to be on their guard and suppress the temptation to fall for the bait.

They need to remember that cotton production had plummeted to its lowest in years following the price wars that rocked every marketing season, which saw many farmers defaulting on loan repayments.

Repaying their loans will also enable Government to create a revolving fund that will help farmers in distress every time and this can even extend to other crops currently not covered under similar arrangements.

It is prudent to the benefiting farmers to build on the capacity they are getting from Cottco and gradually start exploring ways of getting back to viable ways and give Government space to focus on other crops or even new projects.

Contract arrangements are not meant to be perennial, but are expected to give farmers their footing so that they become independent and produce free produce that will give them more revenue after selling.

Once cotton production starts picking up, there are chances of the textile industry reacting positively by starting ginning, which will enable the economy to also generate some decent revenue, especially through exports.

Zimbabwe has one of the most sought after cotton lint, which makes cotton an important crop as far as foreign currency generation is concerned.

Zimbabwean lint is in high demand in European, Asian, Middle East and Sadc markets, which makes it prudent for farmers to produce competitively and enable the country to start serious value addition and supply processed products to all the yawning export markets.

It is encouraging to hear that some ginneries in Gokwe have since started ginning and producing various products from cotton that is being delivered by the farmers.

This simply means that the companies are creating employment opportunities for people that may have been struggling to make ends meet after production dipped to unprofitable levels in recent seasons.

There are many products that will be generated from value addition of cotton and so will there be many jobs too, but this will depend on how the current farmers benefiting from the free Presidential inputs make use of them.

The scheme saw 8 000 tonnes of cotton seed being distributed to around 400 000 farmers across the country and if all the beneficiaries were to seriously commit themselves to doing their best, the cotton and textile industry would soon be running productively.

They can even go back to compete on the international scene.