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Monalisa Chikwengo
WITH most of the early planted cotton for the 2022/23 season now ready for picking, farmers have challenged the Agricultural Marketing Authority (AMA) and Cottco to facilitate the establishment of more selling points to reduce transport costs and time spent travelling to the markets.
Chairman of the Cotton Producers and Marketing Association Mr Stewart Mubonderi said there was a lot of cotton produced this year hence the need for more buying points.
“Farmers need more selling points to cut on the expenses they are incurring if they travel to points situated distances away from their localities, which also eats into precious time they could be using to do other farming activities,” he said.
Mr Mubonderi also spoke against the practice by some companies to move bales from selling points to other destinations before they would have paid the farmers saying the move was creating confusion and making it difficult for farmers to understand the pricing modalities buyers were using.
“No bales shall be moved from the cotton buying points without having been fully paid for,” he said.
He also blamed the problem of side marketing on the unregulated movement of bales saying the issue was the biggest threat to the cotton industry, which called for the adoption of a tight regulatory framework on the marketing of the white gold.
“What almost killed the cotton industry was side marketing, which was caused by companies not paying growers on time. Farmers have in most cases sought the services of unscrupulous buyers to ensure they get money to take care of pressing socio-economic matters,” Mr Mubonderi said.
Mr Mubonderi challenged AMA to take a strong position to when dealing with the problem of side marketing to ensure that all the cotton produced in any season is accounted for, as the nation moves to attain a middle income economy as envisaged in Vision 2030.
The Government has set the pre-season cotton grade differential prices at US$0, 40 for grade D, US$0, 41 for grade C, US$0, 43 for grade B and US$0, 46 per kilogramme for grade A.
Government provided cotton farmers with free inputs under the Presidential Free Inputs Programme.
“More than 360 000 farmers benefited from the free inputs under the scheme that is programmed to run for eight consecutive years. Under the scheme, farmers got free basal and top-dressing fertiliser, seed as well as chemicals,” Mr Mubonderi explained.
The scheme has helped revive the cotton industry, which is a major source of employment for many Zimbabweans both in rural and urban areas. The countrys cotton industry remains an essential sub-sector in ‘the development of the agriculture industry.
Online Reporter