admincotton prices.
Media reports suggest that Zimbabwe cotton farmers, who enjoyed attractive producer prices in 2010/11 season, should brace for a massive drop in producer prices in 2011/12 season, owing to the falling price of lint on the international market.
The 2011 cotton-marketing season was characterised by record high lint prices, which prevailed on the international market from late 2010 up to March 2011.
Prices peaked to US$2,37 per pound but experienced a downward spiral towards the end of March last year.
The record peak period was shortlived as it came at a time when our cotton was still in the fields and therefore not ready for marketing.
The volatility in prices of cotton has hit women the hardest as they are the majority of growers in small- scale cotton farming in Zimbabwe.
While tobacco has changed the economic fortunes of tobacco farmers’ households in the last three seasons, while cotton farmers have been contemplating giving up on the crop each marketing season.
A combination of trade injustices such as the United States cotton subsidies, unfavourable domestic policies, unscrupulous cotton merchants and unfair contract farming have largely been blamed as undermining small-scale cotton farmers’ livelihoods.
Unlike tobacco, global market forces determine cotton prices while tobacco is sold under the auctioning system whereby higher quality tobacco fetches higher prices. In Zimbabwe, cotton is sold at various buying points in its raw form and women who contribute significantly to cotton growing through their labour have to make do with little or no profits from their toil.
While cotton farmers enjoy spot cash payments as compared to longer payment periods for maize and other crops, the high cost of cotton production has become the biggest challenge for smallholder farmers.
Women, who neither have collateral to borrow money for inputs nor financial muscle to buy adequate inputs, are at the receiving end of this.
Mrs Elizabeth Paradza, a small-scale cotton farmer from Gokwe South in the Midlands about 550 kilometres from Harare, is one of the few female farmers around Zimbabwe who have taken a leading role in the fight for better prices for cotton produce.
She has been a cotton farmer for over 10 years and has been campaigning for better prices since 2005.
“Most of the times, we end up accepting low prices because of the pressure to pay school fees among other family needs,” said Mrs Paradza.
She is the co-ordinator of the Trade Justice/Cotton Campaign in Gokwe South that is supported by the Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development (Zimcodd).
“What is most disheartening is that whilst we grow good quality cotton under severe economic circumstances here in Zimbabwe, our cotton fetches low prices and our children wear second hand clothes”, said Mrs Paradza According to Zimcodd, female cotton farmers in Gokwe South took a lead in organising cotton farmers in 2005 following a Trade Justice festival organised in Harare by Zimcodd.
“Cotton is very labour intensive and women spend more time in the cotton fields than men, that is why in 2005, I decided to mobilise fellow farmers including women in my area to seek better prices”, said Mrs Paradza.
According to Zimcodd, the District Cotton Producer Association led by Mrs Paradza resisted the 2008/09-producer price of US$0,15 until the purchase price was increased to US$0,40.
Cotton farmers’ collective bargaining also resulted in even better cotton prices in 2011 when cotton merchants were paying between US$0,85/kg and US$1,00/kg for seed cotton.
Zimcodd reports that whilst the cotton farming sector remains largely patriarchal with men taking lead when it comes to selling the product, the number of women participating in cotton producer associations is increasing gradually.
Cotton producer associations have spread to many cotton farming communities across the country including Gokwe South, Checheche with farmers in Hurungwe, Chipinge, Bindura, Muzarabani, Mt Darwin and Guruve under the guidance of Zimcodd and FACHIG. An estimated 150 000 households in Zimbabwe are benefiting from cotton producer associations.
l The Zimbabwe Women’s Resources Centre Network is an information-based organisation advocating for gender equality and equity. Your feedback is welcome through email to [email protected] or call on +263 4700250/252388, or visit our website, women’s voice blog, Twitter and Facebook pages through www.zwrcn.org.zw
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