Cotton Production Declines 48 Percent

Zimbabwe cotton farmers earned from this year's yield according to a recent article in the state newspaper The Herald. The land redistribution program in this Southern African state has provided farms to people dispossessed by colonialism., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Cotton production declines 48 percent

November 6, 2013
Agriculture Reporter
Zimbabwe Herald

As world cotton prices plunge, cotton production has declined by 48 percent in Zimbabwe as traditional growers switch to more lucrative crops, Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Minister Dr Joseph Made has said.

Dr Made said cotton farmers were switching to better-paying crops like tobacco not because of the poor contract system but due to low prices the crop was fetching.

“We have a mixed cropping enterprise,” he said. “A farmer produces various crops and livestock and as a producer the farmer looks at the strategic advantages of a crop. If tobacco is paying more money, farmers will switch to tobacco.”

Dr Made said farmers in most areas could grow different crops successfully.

“Tobacco production started hundreds of years ago in Kezi, but what stopped the farmers from growing the crop is that they had to transport the crop to the auctions in Harare,” he said.

“The farmer of today is young and well informed and knows when it comes to viability of crops. They will inherently grow the best paying crop and if they succeed they will not stop. It is the farmer who sees the logic in growing a certain crop.”

Dr Made said although tobacco production was flourishing and brining in high returns to both the farmer and the national economy, there had to be a balance.

He said emphasis should be put on addressing pricing in cotton to motivate farmers to grow the crop.

“Farmers are bitter about this,” said Dr Made.

“About three years ago, the price of cotton was good and the middlemen did not go back to the farmers with supplementary payments.

“The farmers are aware of this. On the other hand inputs contractors are supplying inadequate inputs. The farmer will accept the inputs, but will side market the crop at the end of the season.

“These are bad practices. We cannot ignore cotton because of its importance in lint, edible oil and cake for stock feed manufacturers.

“President Robert Mugabe has always stressed that agriculture should not continue to grow as the primary producer and marketer, but should go into primary processing even at farm level."