daniel chigunwe
Edgar Vhera
Agriculture Specialist Writer
WITH hectic planting of various crops marking the order of the day, thanks to the rains currently pounding most parts the country, cotton contractors had by December 13, 2023 dispatched inputs with the potential to cover 75 percent of the initial target of 271 286 hectares.
The Agricultural Marketing Authority (AMA) chief executive officer Mr Clever Isaya yesterday said only six of the nine registered contractors had disbursed 3 039 549 kilogrammes of cotton seeds to 138 528 growers with capacity to do 202 637 hectares as of December 13.
Statistics from AMA show that Cottco, through the Grain Marketing Board (GMB), had achieved 96 percent of its initial target of 140 000 hectares after disbursing 134 352 hectares’ worth of inputs while Alliance Ginneries came second with 91 percent with Agri-Value Chain third at 52 percent.
On the basis of financial acumen and weather forecast, five of the contractors have revised downwards their initial targets with only Cottco increasing its targeted hectarage to 260 000 from 140 000.
The revised target for the industry now stands at 357 250 hectares, with Alliance Ginneries on pole position after achieving a 103 percent of the new target, followed by Agri-Value Chain with 69 and Cottco at 52.
Cottco, Alliance Ginneries and Southern Cotton have distributed both cotton seed and basal fertilisers to farmers, with only the former disbursing 2 454 632 kilogrammes of lime.
Zimbabwe Cotton Consortium, Innovative and Agri-Value Chain has so far dispatched only seed while the other three registered contractors have not yet given their growers anything, the report revealed.
The 2023/24 seed cotton production and marketing arrangements require all cotton inputs to be distributed at a common input distribution point (CIDP) with AMA capturing information on inputs distributed there for both Government and private sector to establish a common database, which will be shared with Agritex for monitoring and evaluation purposes.
Meanwhile, some farmers have lamented the centralisation of CIDP, which has resulted in farmers incurring transport costs from these places to their homesteads, as well as other miscellaneous expenses before one gets inputs in some areas.
Cotton Producers and Marketers Association chairperson Mr Stewart Mubonderi said free Presidential Pfumvudza/Intwasa Inputs must reach farmers without any cost, but this was not the case in some areas.
“In Mutoko, Mashonaland East province, farmers are being made to pay US$2 per bag, with the money said to be for show preparations and paid to Agritex. The same is happening in Uzumba Maramba Pfungwe (UMP) where farmers are being asked to pay between US$1, 50 and US$2 per bag also for the show,” he said.
In Rushinga farmers are paying US$1 for seed and US$2 for fertiliser with some farmers said to have paid US$36 to get all their fertilisers and seed, he added.
The payment of money defies the logic of the Presidential Input Programme that was meant for vulnerable farmers, so if the elderly or child-headed households fail to get money, what do they do, they miss out, lamented Mr Mubonderi.
“In Muzarabani farmers from different areas are being grouped to get inputs from one point, which later requires them to look for transport to go back to their areas. So, any farmer who fails to go to these centralised points does not get inputs while those who get them but does not have transport money are forced to sell some to raise transport fees,” he added.
Online Reporter