Cotton inputs distribution begins, 500 000 growers targeted

Distribution of cotton inputs for the forthcoming farming season began on Tuesday this week, with the Government targeting to support more than 500 000 households.

AMA sets out the commencement date for distribution of the inputs by cotton merchants at common distribution points for transparent data capturing on the level of support to farmers.

The data is then used during the buying season at common buying points with merchants only allowed to buy from its contracted farmers.

The system was introduced to curbside marketing, which partly led to the collapse of the industry in 2014 after most companies scaled down on the level of support due to poor recoveries of their investments

The Cotton Company of Zimbabwe (Cottco), which administers the Government’s free inputs scheme is the largest cotton financier, supporting 85 percent of the farmers.

Major private merchants are Zimbabwe Cotton Consortium and Southern Cotton.

“The distribution points opened on Tuesday and farmers are already receiving the inputs,” Cottco acting accounting officer Munyaradzi Chikasha said in an interview.

Under the presidential inputs scheme, farmers get seed, chemicals, basal and top dressing fertiliser.

The scheme was launched in 2014 in a bid to boost yields after output plummeted to 28 000 tonnes, the lowest yield in nearly two decades after the 1992 drought.

Since the launch of the State-assisted scheme, production has been steadily going up with occasional dips in drought years.

The scheme has helped in the resuscitation of the cotton industry, which is a major source of employment for countryside farmers.

Financially, cotton has been bringing in an average of US$70 million annually, according to official statistics.

Earnings have grown from US$11 million in 2016 up to US$70 million last year with benefits having been accrued along the value chain and around the cotton production ecosystem.

However, there are growing calls to invest more in value addition facilities.

The current spinning capacity cannot absorb the 30 percent of lint earmarked for the local industry because there is not much room to value addition along the textile value chain.

However, plans by David Whitehead and new investors to revive the company will see more value addition along the textile value chain. Through its subsidiary, Agri Value Chain Zimbabwe (AVCZ), ETG Parrogate has started implementing the turnaround plan for David Whitehead, to be funded to the tune of about US$20 million.

The process, which involves the modernisation of the Chegutu and Kadoma factories of DW, has already started with a view to transforming the company into a world-class operation.

DW, once Zimbabwe’s largest textile firm, has been largely idle for nearly two decades, which saw it subjected to three different processes of judicial management since 2005.

The revived textile factory will have the capacity to produce 10 million metres of fabric per year.

The Cotton Ginners Association, which represents private players, says it is hoping that there will be an increase in farmers taking up cotton production in the next season.

Farmers were paid partly in US dollars and this would encourage more farmers to produce the crop.

This year, Zimbabwe recorded the lowest cotton output in three years largely due to bad weather conditions. Deliveries dropped to about 54 000 tonnes from 132 000 tonnes.

The late onset of rains and erratic rainfall patterns led to a reduction in cotton output.

Zimbabwe’s agricultural sector is facing growing risks as a result of extreme weather and shifting of the seasons as a result of climate change and cotton has not been spared.

According to a report produced by Cotton 40, an initiative working for a sustainable and climate-resilient cotton industry, 40 percent of cotton-producing regions are likely to see their growing seasons shortened by rising heat, while drought could hit half of the global crop by 2040.-herald.cl.w