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Edgar Vhera-Agriculture Specialist Writer
The Presidential Cotton Scheme is moving to establish oil expressing and stockfeed manufacturing plants in farming communities in order to create jobs and curb rural urban migration.
The Second Republic’s resolve to curb rural-urban migration under one of the eight rural development 8.0 facets, is anchored on increased productivity, value addition and job creation.
Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Minister Dr Anxious Masuka revealed the plan at the launch of this year’s cotton marketing season.
“The Government is seized with the plan for cotton farmers to access cheap cooking oil and stockfeed from their own produced seed cotton.
Previously seed cotton was taken from farmers and ginned somewhere to produce lint and cotton seed which was exported or sold locally.
Dr Masuka said the Government wants local communities to benefit from the extraction of cooking oil from cotton seed as well as the manufacturing of stockfeed to advance rural development.
“Plans are afoot to have the first oil expressing factory installed this year in Midlands province followed by Masvingo and Mashonaland Central provinces,” said Dr Masuka.
Dr Masuka looked with nostalgia the year 2011 when the country produced 352 million kg of seed cotton and said the Second Republic policies were meant to ricochet production to that level.
What policies did the Second Republic put to steer seed cotton production?
Funding under the Presidential Cotton Scheme
Cognisant of the drop in seed cotton production from a high of 351 million kg in 2012 marketing season to a low of 29 million in 2016 and the slight increase to 76 million kg in 2019 increased funding by Government led to an 80 rise in production in 2021.
The Zimbabwe end of year cotton report for 2022 by the Agricultural Marketing Authority (AMA) said the Presidential Free Cotton Input Scheme was as a subsidy to the farmer that was being administered by Cottco.
Analysis of the report indicate that the proportion of Government to private sector financing was 65 to 35 percent at inception but had widened over the years to the current 93 to seven percent for the 2021/22 season.
Split payment for seed cotton purchases in the 2022 cotton marketing
The Government cognisant of the inflationary pressures due to depreciation of the local currency against major foreign currencies in the 2020 and 2021 marketing season, introduced a split payment method for 2022.
This was meant to encourage farmers to take farming as a business.
A kilogramme of seed cotton was paid a price of US$0, 30 in cash on spot plus $32, 50 through mobile or bank transfers. This was 75/25 percent split between the foreign and local currency.
Increase of foreign currency portion to 85 percent
The 2023 marketing season saw the Government increasing the foreign currency portion to 85 percent from 75 previously with the local portion going down to 15 percent from 25.
This was meant to put more foreign currency in the pockets of farmers to stimulate rural development.
Grade-based pricing model
Following complaints raised by cotton stakeholders at the inaugural World Cotton Day last year, that the quality of cotton had deteriorated the Government introduced a grade-based pricing system to reward production of quality seed cotton in the current marketing season.
The price was set on a sliding scale from US$0, 40 for grade D, US$0, 41 for grade C, US$0,43 for grade B and US$0, 46 for grade A.
The introduction of the grade-based payment system this year is expected to reverse the above trend with much of the seed cotton anticipated to get better grades as farmers seek higher returns.
Over the period 2017 to 2022 the average percentage for the different grades were: A (2%), B (4%), C (34%) and D (60%).
Adoption of Pfumvudza Cotton model
The Government is addressing the decline in cotton productivity from an average of about 800 kg per hectare in 2010 to 232 kg in 2022 by calling on farmers to adopt Pfumvudza cotton model as that allows farmers to give maximum attention to smaller pieces of manageable land where optimum inputs are applied.
Because of drudgery involved in do holing, the Government has activated the acquisition of two-wheel tractors for use by smallholder farmers to mechanise them. It is also calling on farmers to adopt the 4R concept of applying the right type of input, in the right quantity, at the right time and placement as well as right pH in order to keep the vital nutrients in the field for improved production, productivity and profitability.
Importance of cotton to the economy
Cotton is a major source of livelihood for approximately 1, three million people from farmers, farm workers, their families, and industrial workers.
The crop contributes immensely to income and employment creation while contributing to foreign currency earnings.
In a twitter post, Cottco said “The cotton sector has evolved from only accounting for one percent of the commercial agriculture output in 1965 to about 10 percent to date. Though it was not exported then, currently it is a major source of foreign currency with 70 percent of the crop produced being exported.”
Cotton provides raw material for oil expressing, knitting, spanning, weaving and stockfeed industries.
Efforts to sustain cotton production
Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development deputy minister Mr Vangelis Haritatos said Government introduced the Pfumvudza cotton concept to mitigate the negative effects of climate change and increase production and productivity.
“Pfumvudza cotton is an initiative by Government to boost production with farmers being cushioned by provision of inputs under the Presidential Input Scheme,” said Dep Min Haritatos.
Cotton removes carbon emissions from the atmosphere as it sinks 150 times more carbon dioxide than it produces. Conservation tillage practiced under Pfumvudza cotton further helps in carbon sequestration.
Dep Min Haritatos said better farmer viability and sustainability would encourage more farmers to venture into cotton production.
“The Government has upped dam construction for irrigation development. In the 2018/19 season four farmers started cotton production under irrigation and the number has since grown to 211,” added Dep Min Haritatos.
Success stories of smallholder cotton farmers
Mr Smart Kambanje from Nembudziya under Chief Makore in Gokwe district, who was voted as the 2021/22 season’s best cotton farmer, chronicled how interventions by the Second Republic in the cotton sector transformed his life.
“I used to do menial jobs such as weeding in other people’s fields to cater for my own farming venture but now I have managed to build a house and bought a grinding mill.
“In 2018 the Government gave us the complete free cotton input package and I planted local open pollinated varieties (OPV) SZ9314 and managed 21 bales,” said Mr Kambanje.
Mr Kambanje continued in production getting support from the Government and achieved 27 bales each in 2019 and 2020. In 2021 he planted one hectare each under the local variety SZ9314 and the imported hybrid Mahyco C567.
“I observed that there was not much difference in the yield between the two varieties with the imported Mahyco hybrid producing 4 560 kg while the local variety SZ9314 got 4 006 kg per hectare. If anything, I noticed that the balls from the local variety are heavier at about 5 grammes compared to those for the hybrid that are around 3 grammes,” continued Mr Kambanje.
The Government’s intervention last year in the pricing of cotton by offering a cash price of US$60 plus Z$6 500 per 200 kg bale brought joy to the farming community with Mr Kambanje pocketing US$2 570 cash and $278 395 in his phone.
This season Mr Kambanje graduated and increased his planted to six hectares, two of which are under the high-yielding hybrid Mahyco variety.
His success story comes from implementing good agronomic practices from land preparation, planting, upkeep, harvesting and storage under the Going4Growth 4R (right seed, right quantity, right time, right placement) theme.
His runner up Mrs Sekai Chinyandura had her life transformed when she had a 120-metre borehole sunk at her Muzarabani homestead.
Another farmer doing wonders is Mr Lyben Sithole of Munepasi Village in Ward 26 of Chipinge who is practising commercial cotton production on 20 hectares out of his 31-hectare plot.
Mr Sithole applauded the Government support in the provision of inputs under the Presidential Cotton Input Scheme saying this had transformed his life for the better.
“I planted 20 hectares under dryland this season up from 15ha last season. I am expecting 350 bales from my average yield of around 16 bales per hectare,” said Mr Sithole.
Mr Sithole glories that he managed to electrify his homestead by drawing the power seven kilometres away, bought three grinding mills, built a large shed to store his crop and built a house in Harare.
He employs up to 30 people who pick cotton, do weeding and general crop maintenance.
Online Reporter