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Obert Chifamba
Agri-Insight
FROM June 7 to July 7. That made exactly a month for the 2024 seed cotton marketing season.
It was one of the shortest marketing seasons in recent memory.
This was a season pregnant with both expectations and trepidation among farmers and most stakeholders along the crop’s value chain.
It was a season characterised by a punishing drought courtesy of the El Nino weather phenomenon that prevailed.
Of course there was always a silver lining to the dark cloud stalking the season that kept most stakeholders hopeful.
The fact that the drought was affecting most of the renowned global cotton producers gave a hint at the possibility of deficits in supplies, which could easily give birth to high demand, and the subsequent rising of prices.
Here at home, Cabinet had set the opening date of the marketing season for June 1 and the closing date on June 30, but this was delayed due to price negotiations between farmers and various cotton buyers then.
The season eventually got underway on June 7 with yield projections suggesting that 40 000 tonnes of the white gold could be achieved. This was 50 000 tonnes shy of last season’s 90 000.
The price negotiations were concluded with the agreement that farmers would sell their seed cotton at US$0,32 per kilogramme and that they would also receive their full payments for cotton delivered on the spot failure of which they would hold on to their product until they were paid.
This on-the-spot payment method seems to be one of the feel-good factors that have been eluding the marketing seasons in recent times, which had seen most producers getting disillusioned with some even dumping the crop for other options.
The farmers that I talked to after they had sold their white gold were full of praise for the method, which they said was giving them assurance of a better future for the crop.
It will not require rocket science for anyone to appreciate the fact that farmers needed this kind of consolation after going through a harrowing season in which they hopelessly watched their hopes vanishing into thin air as the drought worsened, destroying crops.
It is not surprising that farmers had sold 11 million kilogrammes of the white gold with just a few days to go before the set date to conclude the season.
The fact that farmers who made the deliveries first would share the news that they had been paid on the spot was enough to spur others to hasten their deliveries lest there could be a change of payment modalities.
The Agricultural and Marketing Authority (AMA) was considering extending the marketing season to allow those farmers who had a late crop to finish harvesting, grading and packing the produce then deliver it.
AMA chief executive officer, Mr Clever Isaya even hinted that they had deployed teams to cotton producing areas to do an assessment of the situation prevailing on the ground before the authority could make a decision on the matter.
Logically, an extension of the season would be the only meaningful option for now given that some farmers are reportedly seized with completing picking of the white gold.
Their situation is a direct result of the bad season and the false start to their season, which eventually resulted in many of them doing a late crop.
For AMA to close doors to such farmers would be misdemeanour analogous to profanity in a great temple.
The cotton industry is currently recovering from years of poor performance due to an assortment of reasons and the least stakeholders can do is be lenient a bit with the farmers.
They are still recovering from the multiple shocks they suffered in recent seasons that saw some abandoning the crop for tobacco, maize and sesame.
This season’s payment method is surely going to instil confidence in the distraught farmers and lay the foundation for the rejuvenation of the sector this coming season.
One thing it is taking care of is farmers’ welfare with some of the merchants reportedly offering farmers 32 US cents without splitting it into US dollars and ZiG components in line with Government’s directive.
It is also refreshing to note that some merchants are also already paying grade-based price differentials in a development that flies in the face of what has been happening in previous seasons where that payment would come after a very long wait or might not even come at all.
Essentially, the decision by some merchants to pay the wholesome amount in foreign currency is the huge morale booster cotton farmers have so direly been waiting for and gives them a head start to next season’s preparations.
They need to buy inputs, pay for labour services rendered last season and retain cordial relations with the people they always engage at peak periods of the production activities to relieve them of pressure.
AMA’s decision to monitor goings-on during the marketing season from the first day to the end is quite noble given the hypocritical nature of some merchants who in recent years have fleeced farmers of potential revenue and even colluded among themselves to erect price ceilings that would not be broken during the entire season.
This has always left farmers licking bruised egos when their huge expectations would just crumble under their watch even if their crop should have fetched higher prices, thanks to their good quality.
It seems merchants have not been paying much attention to matching quality with prices, as they seemed to be just fixing prices from out of the blues.
Now that AMA has demonstrated that they can stamp their authority, something they do not seem to have been doing all the years, it is prudent that they pick from where they would have left this marketing season by giving contractors deadlines to deliver inputs to farmers so that they plant in time.
AMA teams must be on the ground to ensure that inputs are getting to the intended beneficiaries and that nothing is being moved from the input collection points undocumented.
It is also refreshing to note that this season’s payment method may easily be that turning point the cotton industry has been looking for to see new entrants coming on board to produce the white gold. The plain truth is that all farmers now produce crops for both food security and business.
If the crop is not a source of food and is meant for the market, then farmers are happy with producing it well and selling it to raise an income with which they will then proceed to buy food.
These developments in the cotton industry must be upheld and even enforced to ensure there is security in producing the crop while making sure they bring better fortunes for farmers. The boot must be on the other foot for the farmers now.
Online Reporter