Cotton farmers optimistic of a successful season

Tariro Stacey Gatsi

COTTON farmers are expecting a fruitful season after the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) expeditiously distributed top-dressing fertiliser and herbicides to most growing areas in the wake of the dry spell that rocked the first half of the season delaying the planting of the crop.

Initially, GMB had only distributed seed and basal fertiliser minus top dressing fertiliser and herbicides, which left farmers worried at the prospects of a poor season.

Cotton Producers and Marketers Association chairman, Mr Stewart Mubonderi said the crop situation in most parts of the country was really good and encouraging. He thanked GMB for the delivery of top-dressing fertiliser and chemicals for both weed and pest control.

Mr Mubonderi said this season’s crop was looking exceptionally good despite getting inadequate weeding time due to the heavy rains that recently fell across the country over two weeks making it necessary for farmers to use post-emergence herbicides to control weeds.

He added that the cotton crop planted under the Pfumvudza/Intwasa programme was doing well in most parts of the country with farmers expecting a good harvest.

“The cotton crop in most cotton growing areas is in a very good state, farmers are really happy. We are also happy that farmers have received their herbicides on time and are thrilled by the results,” said Mr Mubonderi.

Mr Mubonderi emphasised that fertilisation, weeding and chemical applications must be done timely and also challenged GMB to quickly distribute herbicides to areas that have not yet received them.

“GMB must expedite the delivery of chemicals to farmers, as the good-looking crop needs to be maintained at all costs,” he added.

In a recent X (formerly Twitter) post the GMB said with planting coming to a close, it was accelerating the distribution of top-dressing fertiliser under the Presidential Inputs Programme (PIP) after distributing over 87 percent of top-dressing fertiliser to farmers.

Cotton is grown in four main regions of the country that are hot and receive rainfall of between 400 and 600 millimetres per annum mostly in the central and north-western parts of the Midlands province covering areas in Gokwe South and Gokwe North, where the bulk of cotton production takes place.

Cotton Council of Zimbabwe (CCOZ) chief executive officer Engineer Chris Murove concurred saying the crop was in a good condition and thanked the Government for distributing the herbicides that have played a major role in protecting the crop from weeds.

“Top-dressing fertiliser came as a catalyst and we are even anticipating a higher yield of seed cotton this season than last year,” said Eng Murove.

Cotton, the second most important cash crop in Zimbabwe, is grown by thousands of smallholder farmers on average plot sizes of about one hectare in the summer rainfall growing season (November to April).

Meanwhile, statistics from the Agricultural Marketing Authority (AMA) show that inputs with the potential to cover 306 113 hectares had been disbursed to 212 653 growers by all contractors as of January 26. This represents 86 percent of the targeted national hectarage of 357 250. Seven of the registered contractors gave inputs to growers this season with the exception of Galaxy Cotton and Cangrow.