The cotton conundrum: Can someone explain what’s going on?

Obert Chifamba-Agri-Insight

THE story of cotton production in Zimbabwe has in recent seasons become entwined with threads of both prosperity and peril.

In the 2011/12 season, the industry was at its zenith, producing an impressive 350 million kilogrammes of lint — a testament to the robust demand and favourable conditions that propelled it to those new heights.

And fast forward to the 2024/25 cropping term, the cotton production landscape has shifted dramatically, with production plummeting to a mere 28 million kilogrammes. Naturally, this piques the inquisitiveness of any aptly thinking individual to try and understand what went wrong, how and at what point.

Today, my offering will try to unravel the complex tapestry of factors influencing the cotton industry, exploring the possible economic, environmental, and social dynamics that have contributed to its fluctuating fortunes. I will delve into the intricate world of cotton production, where every thread tells a story — a tale of resilience and transformation.

Of course, there are many questions begging to be answered.

And for an industry so full of promise at some point to just wake up mired in a battle for survival, as it is currently doing leaves the mind boggled. Someone, somewhere is not playing his or her part and once this anonymous, destabilising force is identified and neutralised, the good times may once again start rolling in the white gold industry.

The sharp contrast from the 350 million kilogrammes of lint produced on 432, 901 hectares at an average yield of 810 kilogrammes per hectare in the 2011/12 season to a mere 28 million kilogrammes produced under less than 150 000 hectares last season is one that cannot just be ignored.

Everything seemed to be going on well in the 2011/12 season with buyers paying US$1 per kilogramme of the white gold versus US$0, 30 per kilogramme in the 2024/25 season. With such a background, production of cotton should have by now peaked to immeasurable heights given that the price of a dollar for a kilogramme had been a product of the country’s push to empower farmers and support the industry.

Globally, the price is always doing a ping-pong between US$0, 50 and US$0, 28 but the Zimbabwean Government had to go out of its way to come up with such a rewarding price. This was an effort to revive the fortunes of the industry after low prices almost hounded most growers from producing the crop.

At the advent of the Second Republic, Government picked up from where its predecessor had left and introduced many initiatives to support and revitalise cotton production. It added cotton to the basket of crops to be produced Government’s input support programmes, which saw cotton producers getting inputs such as seed and fertilisers at subsidised rates plus technical support. In essence, this was a push to increase yields.

Government did not stop there but made efforts to improve market access for cotton farmers and promoted partnerships with some private companies to ensure better pricing and contracts. It also increased funding for agricultural research towards developing high-yield and disease-resistant cotton varieties.

There has also been a lot happening towards equipping farmers with knowledge Government organising training workshops to enhance farmers’ knowledge of best farming practices, pest management and sustainable agricultural practices. This has backed by a lot of investments in rural infrastructure such as roads and irrigation systems to facilitate easier access to markets and improve production efficiency.

It seems the more Government is trying to improve the human component’s capacity, the more the challenges the cotton sector faces.

Adverse weather aside, it seems something is happening somewhere along the production process, which is impacting yields while markets also seem to be conspiring to gradually squeeze life out of the farmers.

This is the mystery I am seeking to understand in this analysis. This, effectively means there is some kind of breakdown somewhere and it is this disconnect that needs to be corrected to get the industry booming once again.

Maybe I am just over-thinking this but things are just not adding up. The 2023/24 season that was ruined by the El Nino inspired drought saw cotton yields settling at 13, 5 million kilogrammes, a yield that rose to just 28 million kilogrammes in a season that saw other crops recording bumper yields.

On the one hand, it may also suffice to say contractors have a role in the current challenges affecting the sector. They do not seem to be adequately preparing for the marketing seasons when they will be buying seed cotton from the farmers. In the end we are having perennial problems of farmers going for very long periods of time without being paid for deliveries they would have made.

Remember, farmers are business people who need working capital every bit of the way, so failing to pay them on time for produce delivered is tantamount to denying them the opportunity to invest in new cropping ventures.

The shrinking hectarage may be a result of many other factors but to me, money in the form of payments for produce, is a key determinant to how the industry survives going forward.

It is highly disappointing to realise that farmers have not received differential prices for their cotton after the regrading process. The grade differential prices are unequivocally farmers’ dues given that all the lint is bought as grade D before it is later re-graded to enable farmers to get the true value of their produce. It must not come as just a token of appreciation or a complimentary prize but something that belongs to the growers.

Over the years, grade differential prices had been made to look as if they are optional by some contractors yet they should be the ones bringing in the greater chunk of the payments. If a farmer scores grade A for the bulk of her cotton and receives the initial grade D prices, then it means more money should therefore be coming later after the re-grading.

I vividly remember that we would wait expectantly for the grade differential price back in the eighties and late seventies after we would have received our first payment. The coming of that money just before the festive season would enable my parents to buy us new clothes for both Christmas and new year. They would also use the money for home developments and further preparations for new seasons.

This does not require rocket science for anyone to see how cotton farming allowed and can still allow farmers to make decent livelihoods after the marketing seasons. This failure by the crop to generate enough revenue to uplift livelihoods may also be part of the reasons the crop may be slowly dying a natural death.

All this is happening on the backdrop of rampant reports that many farmers are dumping the white gold for either tobacco or sesame, two crops which are currently ruling the roost, as far as viable payments are concerned.

It will only be a matter of time before paying before the nation wakes up to the news that farmers have completely opted to dump cotton.

This is not a prophecy of doom but words of a one-time beneficiary of cotton revenue when the sector was still thriving.