Lack of funding hampers cotton farmers’ training

By Faith Mhandu recently in Rutenga
The Cotton Training Centre has scaled down farmer training due to lack of funding. CTC has over the past years been training farmers from five provinces but this year only catered for Masvingo and Manicaland.
In the 2009/10 season, 8 266 cotton farmers received training compared to 5 810 farmers currently under training this year.
CTC director Mr Afios Mseva said their contract with their funders, the European Union, expired last year and they were now sponsoring their own activities.
“We are a non-profit making organisation and offer training at a very low and subsidised registration fee which every farmer can afford.
“Cotton farming has remained the major livelihood option for many households in the drier parts of the country and our major objective therefore is to increase productivity and incomes through enhanced knowledge and skills,” he said.
Mr Mseva said agriculture was the cornerstone of rural development through transformation of the smallholder sector.
CTC was set up in 1983 to spearhead capacity building for cotton producers, marketers and arms of Government and the private sector.
The number of farmers interested in the training, Mr Mseva said, was gradually increasing each year.
“Training for the 2009/10 season alone reflected a percentage difference of 69 percent of the total farmers trained between 2005 and 2008.”
Meanwhile Mwenezi District agricultural extension officer, Mrs Veronica Muchechetere, has urged the private sector to partner Government in economic recovery.
“Institutions like the CTC are very important, especially at a time like this, to revive our economy through farmers’ empowerment,” she said.
Mwenezi Farmers who received their certificates in 2008/09 said the training made a positive mark in their lives.
“I used to harvest only three bales on one hectare, but after training I started harvesting between five to seven bales of cotton per hectare.
“I thought education was only for the young but now I know that indeed education is the key to success,” said Gilbert Chidzani of Rutenga.