Low cotton producer prices trigger demo

costs.
The Agricultural Marketing Authority recommended 36c to 50c/kg from Grade D to Grade A while production costs are pegged at US$660 per hectare.

Normally a farmer gets 700 kg of lint per hectare.
Growers drawn from most cotton growing areas such as Gokwe, Raffingora, Kadoma, Muzarabani and Checheche among other areas marched from the Zanu-PF Headquarters to the Cotton Ginners Association offices along Simon Mazorodze Road before handing over their petition to the Agricultural Marketing Authority.

They sang and waved placards expressing discontent over prices being offered by ginners.
Cotton Producers and Marketers Association of Zimbabwe national organising secretary Mr Stewart Mubonderi said cotton growers had been shortchanged for long and could not continue suffering at the hands of ginners.

Growers, he said, were negotiating for better prices of US$1 but ginners were offering less than US30 cents per kg.

“We will continue withholding our crop instead of selling it at give away prices,” said Mr Mubonderi.
“Organisations have taken farmers for granted for too long. Negotiations are done without our participation and recently AMA announced prices without our contribution yet we are the producers.”

Cotton growers also complained that ginners were only interested in making huge profits and neglecting growers concerns. They said the low prices being offered will see most of them losing property, as ginners will be recovering their costs.
“The money we are going to get from our crop will not cover the inputs provided by ginners and obviously they will confiscate our property to recover their money. We are getting poorer and poorer each year,” complained a farmer from Kadoma.

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CPMA chairman, Mr C Gondo said the CGA were taking advantage of farmers through its “restrictive practices”.
He urged responsible authorities to ensure cottonseed was available in retail outlets so that farmers can produce free cotton.
“At the moment we can not access cotton seed on the open market but will have to be contracted to get the planting material,” he said.
Mr Gondo said it was not fair that some growers benefited from the Presidential Inputs Scheme and managed to produce free cotton but buyers wanted to buy the whole crop as if it was produced under contract too.

“Government should make amendments so that there will be competition in the buying of cottonseed to reduce these monopolistic contractors who manipulate the farmers,” he said.
Cotton growers also complained of common buying points saying they were far away and further increased costs as the farmer has to pay transport costs to deliver his crop.

“Contractors should stop harassing growers in a bid to recover their inputs. They must do so without any court order in which many cotton farmers have lost livestock and property,” Mr Gondo said.
Cotton growers reached a stalemate over the cotton price, as farmers want a higher price while contractors said they could not afford.

Government has begun mobilising funds to buy cotton from farmers. In Zambia cotton growers have also refused to sell their crop at low prices and have vowed to withhold their crop until a favourable price is offered.
In Malawi, seed cotton price is fixed at 78 Malawi Kwacha per kg, which translates to US32 cents per kg.

In Mozambique the top grade is pegged at US37 cents per kg.
Seed cotton farmers the world over share similar challenges with producer prices.
However, some of the more successful countries manage to keep their farmers on the land by providing subsidies.

China and the United States also subsidise their producers to keep them motivated to grow cotton.