Malawi registers sharp cotton production growth

The president attributed the increase in cotton production to the government’s deliberate efforts to promote production of the cash crop.
The government has allocated US$6,4 million in its 2011/2012 national budget to cater for the procurement of farm inputs for cotton production.
“I am pleased to inform this august House that the estimated cotton production for 2011/2012 is 244 000 tonnes compared to only 52 000 tonnes which was produced in the 2010/2011 season.
“This translates into a 365 percent increase in production,” the president declared.
She said the government also procured three ginneries, through a line of credit from the government of India that would be operated by the country’s chief produce market, Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (ADMARC) in the cotton producing districts of Ngabu, Balaka and Karonga.
The president said the acquisition of the three ginneries would help improve the ginning capacity for value addition.
She projected that in the 2012/2013 season, the hectarage for cotton production was expected to increase from 236 269 to 250 000.
Cotton sales in Malawi had for a long time been less attractive until 2011, when the prices of seeded cotton went up three to four folds thereby, attracting more farmers into the production of the cash crop, which ranks fourth in the southern African country after tobacco, sugarcane and tea.
President Banda said with the country’s chief cash crop, tobacco, the expected yield was 151 million kg, which she said was 35 percent less than last year’s production of 232 million kg.
“To address the issue of low prices offered at the Auction Floors which mostly hurt poor Malawian farmers, Government will review the Tobacco Act.
“We have also engaged the tobacco buyers as partners in business and development of this country,” said Banda.
Meanwhile, tobacco prices at the country’s auction floors improved since President Banda assumed presidency on April 7. — Xinhua.