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Edgar Vhera
Agriculture Specialist Writer
THE Cotton Company of Zimbabwe (Cottco) has urged farmers who received cotton seed last season but could not plant due to the El Nino-induced drought to bring it for germination tests before using it.
Cottco chief executive officer, Mr Rockie Mutenha made the call in a recent update on preparations for the upcoming cotton summer season.
“We encourage farmers to bring leftover stock from last year, especially seed, to Cottco for germination tests. If results from the tests are not favourable, the farmer will be given new seed at no cost,” said the Cottco boss.
He dispelled the misconception among some people that if a farmer has leftover seed, he can then produce free cotton.
“There is a misconception that reserved or seed left from last year automatically becomes free cotton. There is nothing like that since they received it under the Presidential Input Scheme (PIS). The seed cotton produced from the seed will have to be delivered to Cottco,” he said.
Statutory Instrument (SI) 63 of 2011, [Agricultural Marketing Authority (Seed Cotton and Seed Cotton Products) Regulations] defines ‘free cotton’ as seed cotton that is grown by a grower without contractual obligations or above contractual obligations agreed between the grower and contractor as confirmed by crop reports done end of March of each year.
Mr Mutenha said free cotton occurred when a farmer buys own inputs (seed, fertiliser and chemicals) for production of the crop.
The Cottco boss called on all farmers to do necessary land preparations and take advantage of early rains to plant their cotton crop to get high yields.
Stakeholders in the Zimbabwe Agricultural Think Tank (ZATT) – Cotton Council Discussion Forum concurred saying there was need to test viability of the carryover seed in order to determine planting seed rate.
“Farmers’ storage facilities and other external factors like direct sunlight and moisture may affect the germination capacity of the seed and eventual plant stand.
“Contractors might need to incentivise their farmers who collected seed but did not plant to surrender it for germination tests and subsequent use this season,” said one contributor who requested anonymity.
Cotton Council of Zimbabwe (CCOZ) chief executive officer, Engineer Chris Murove agreed that this was a brilliant idea, which can mitigate against the challenge of seed shortages.
On free cotton, Eng Murove concurred that the first part of SI 63 describes 100 percent free cotton, as that produced by a farmer who is not contracted at all.
“However, part (b) describes how a contracted farmer can also produce free cotton and this starts with a contract that must define the contracted and agreed volume between a farmer and a contractor for the given inputs.
“If this is not agreed and defined in the contract, as is the case in the current and past contracts, the farmer cannot have any free cotton because everything he or she produces is deemed to be contracted cotton,” he added.
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