Govt splashes millions on cotton farmers

Livingstone Marufu —
Government has sourced cotton farming inputs worth US$36 million for 400 000 households as part of efforts to resuscitate the industry. Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Deputy Minister Davis Marapira said like with Command Agriculture, the cotton inputs scheme would be strictly monitored to ensure implementation.

He said, “We have raised stakes for cotton farmers by improving from a quarter hectare last year to a hectare this year; and we have already announced a pre-planting price of USc40 per kg and an added incentive of USc15 per kg to make it USc55 per kg.

“We are putting in place these measures to revamp an industry that has a lot of potential. Given the necessary support, the cotton industry can compete with the tobacco like what used to be in the past.

“We have chosen the Grain Marketing Board depots as our inputs collection points since they are easily accessible to many farmers.

“Just like cotton input scheme, all the other schemes such as Command Agriculture and the Presidential Inputs Scheme have already started, with farmers receiving inputs,” said Deputy Minister Marapira.

The Zimbabwe Farmers Union commended Government for supporting cotton farmers with free inputs, saying the move was likely to boost productivity.

Farmers are expected to deliver their produce to the Cotton Company of Zimbabwe (Cottco) this season as Government has fully supported them.
Cotton is mostly grown by communal, A1 and small-scale farmers. Deputy Minister Marapira also said farmers had delivered 215 000 tonnes of maize to the GMB, earning around US$95 million.

“Over the years, our farmers have been failing to get funding but with Government encouraging public private partnership, joint ventures and contract farming, they won’t struggle in that area.

“We are also encouraging our farmers to apply more lime and gypsum to strengthen their soil. This helps farmers to put lesser quantities of fertiliser per hectare as the lime would have improved soil fertility in its own way,” he said.