Bail out cotton farmers, say MPs

Farmers and ginners recently reached a stalemate as farmers wanted between US$0,50 and US$1 per kg, while ginners said they were not able to pay a price higher than US$0,30 per kg.

Minister Made encouraged ginners willing to buy at higher prices to do so and said no company should dictate prices to other firms.
He, however, said GMB was not buying cotton.
“No one should claim money from GMB as it stands. GMB will not buy any contracted cotton, but will only buy free cotton if Government gives it money,” he said.

Meanwhile, legislators moved a motion calling on Government to intervene in the cotton price crisis.
Mwenezi East MP Cde Kudakwashe Bhasikiti moved the motion, saying prices being offered would discourage farmers from growing the crop.
Merchants are offering prices from about US30c per kg to US50c per kg depending on the grade, down from between US80c per kg and US$1 per kg that was offered last year.

Also see

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• Cotton prices deadlock

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“Growing cotton is labour intensive and for a farmer to grow one hectare, he will need 15kg of seed at US$27, between two and three 50kg bags of Compound D and the same amount of ammonium nitrate at US$33 each.
“Cotton can also be easily affected by aphids and other insects so a farmer needs insecticides and will need to spray three to four times at US$30 each time.

“The labour costs are also around US$75, so, Mr Speaker, the costs of production of cotton on a hectare can range from US$264 to US$427,” he said.
Cde Bhasikiti said from one hectare a farmer can get between three and          six bales with each bale weighing 200kg.
“With the price being offered it means the farmer can get US$180 per hectare, meaning he would be left in debt,” he said.

Uzumba representative Cde Sim­baneuta Mudarikwa accused Gov­ernment of creating cartels exploit­ing cotton farmers.
Under the law only registered mer­chants are allowed to buy cotton.
“The Ministry of Agriculture cre­ated monopolies through Statutory Instrument 142 of 2009 and Statu­tory Instrument 63 of 2011 that reg­istered cotton merchants.

“What this automatically created is a monopoly of people buying cotton and people financing cotton,” he said.
He described the situation as “legalised theft”.
Mbire MP Cde Paul Mazikana said cotton merchants increased the price of inputs this year.

“They increased the price of inputs by 100 percent from what they were offering last year so in the end they are ripping off farmers because the price that is being offered is even lower,” he said.