‘White gold’ loses glitter

He watches other villagers, friends and boys his age, who are gripped by the usual Friday fever “Woza Friday” rushing to school.
Nhamo shyly waves to them and promises to see them at the village soccer ground after school.
As for Nhamo’s mother life goes on as she ponders the family’s next move since she has been holding on to 10 bales of cotton they realised in the 2011/12 farming season.
Nhamo’s mother, like many other cotton farmers, anticipated to make a killing from her produce when the marketing season kicked off in April, but it has not been.
Cotton farmers are in a quandary as cotton ginners set unsustainable prices for the product.
“My son should be going to school with others right now, but authorities there expelled him three weeks ago due to non-payment of fees. I am a widow and cannot find money to pay the boy’s school fees. My only source of livelihood is cotton farming, which is under threat.
“I am still holding on to 10 bales of cotton since April because I cannot just donate to ginners at US0,30 per kilogramme being offered at the moment,” said Nhamo’s mother, Sekai Mlambo.
Mlambo said the lives of most farmers in the area were under threat as they could not fend for themselves owing to low cotton producer prices.
“I sold four bales of cotton which weighed 814 kilogrammes and the company paid me US$0,35 per kilogramme instead of the minimum of US$0,77 gazetted by Government.
“All the money went towards the payment of inputs. I was literally left with nothing even to buy food or send my children to school which is very disturbing, discouraging and disheartening,” she said.
She added that Government should subsidise inputs to stop local cotton growers from relying on contract farming, which has been disadvantaging the farmers for years.
“We call upon the Government to intervene swiftly in order to save cotton producers and the entire cotton value chain from collapsing. If it collapses or remains unviable most of us will starve to death as cotton is the only crop that does well in this area,” Mlambo explained.
Government recently promulgated Statutory Instrument (SI) 106 A of 2012 declaring cotton produced in the 2011/12 season a controlled crop, meaning that only Government can gazette the producer price. Under the same SI ginners are compelled to pay that price.
The law also stipulates that contractors who cannot buy cotton at the Government-stipulated price can get their inputs from the Grain Marketing Board.
However, no cotton buyer is paying the least price of US$0,77 per kilogramme as announced by the Government under the SI 106.
All the farmers’ hopes have been shattered and farmers are also wondering why the same Government is not enforcing what it has announced.
Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union executive director Paul Zakariya said the future of cotton farming in the country was bleak if what is happening on the ground is anything to go by.
“No cotton merchant is using the new pricing regime announced by Government, we have proof that people are not being paid those amounts,” he said.
Added Zakariya: “The farmers have not been given any choice but to sell at the lowest price of US$0,30. We understand that some ginners are now going to the people’s homesteads, confiscating cattle, chickens, maize and even ploughs claiming that they want to recover their inputs. Some farmers are still holding on to their product or have side marketed to get better returns.”
He said farmers and ginners should honour their contractual obligations for mutual benefit and to ensure the survival of the industry.
“We are not saying farmers should not pay debts, but why should the cotton merchants rush to attach the farmers’ property before they even sell their crop?
“We actually see it as a ploy by contractors to push farmers into selling at a low price. We also urge the Government to intervene and protect farmers from losing their property,” Zakariya said.
Zakariya added that there is need for all stakeholders in the cotton value chain to seek ways to grow the industry.
“We need to make sure that we protect the industry by maintaining the value chain encouraging business attitude amongst farmers, ginners and the rest of the value chain,” he said adding that farmers should also be capacitated to engage the private sector on better pricing and better contracts.
As farmer unions, Zakariya said, they had a lot of work to do teaching farmers to negotiate, disagree, compromise and come up with a result.
“Government should also provide the enabling environment, playing the facilitating role using various instruments to regulate the industry,” he pointed out.
Cotton is the country’s second largest foreign currency earner in agriculture after tobacco.
It is a source of livelihood for over 250 000 families in the drier parts of Zimbabwe which include Muzarabani in Mashonaland Central province, Chiredzi in Masvingo, Gokwe in Midlands and Chipinge in Manicaland.
However, it remains to be seen whether it will be achieved considering the war still ranging on between farmers and cotton buyers over prices.
Cotton Ginners’ Association chairperson David Machingaidze, who is also Cotton Company of Zimbabwe managing director, maintains that the future of the cotton industry in Zimbabwe was still bright despite the challenges besetting it.
“There are a couple of issues that need to be put right like the provision of the correct input regime for farmers, putting in place appropriate statutory instruments. Nevertheless, the future of the cotton industry is still very bright,” he said.
He added: “Cotton production rose to 250 000 metric tonnes in 2011 from 207 000 in 2009 showing that the industry can still grow. Debt recovery also shot up to 90 percent in 2011 from 60 in 2009.”
An agriculturist who declined to be named said Government should leave market forces to decide the cotton prices as imposition of prices will only benefit farmers in the short run.
“Market forces should determine prices because by and large the cotton prices are not controlled in Zimbabwe but on the international arena.
“Imposition of producer prices will cripple the sector which was once the envy of most countries on the continent.
“What we need to do as Zimbabwe is to teach our farmers to increase yield per hectare as this is one of the answers to the current challenges and that is what we have power to change,” he said.
He noted that the same noise made during the cotton marketing season should be made from the beginning of the farming season, encouraging contractors to give farmers adequate inputs, the extension workers to assist farmers and farmers to follow the best practices in cotton production.
“If we do this we will achieve something as Zimbabwe,” he said.
Zimbabwe’s cotton output is expected to rise to between 265 000 tonnes and 280 000 tonnes in the 2012 marketing season, up from last year’s       249 000.
The country exports 80 percent of its cotton in raw form due to lack of value addition mechanisms.