eBusiness Weekly
Munyaradzi Musiiwa
MIDLANDS – Cotton farmers have delivered more than 138 million kilograms to cotton merchants so far this season.
Addressing farmers during the Zimbabwe Farmers Union Annual Conference in Gweru last week, Agriculture Marketing Authority (AMA) acting chief executive officer, Mrs Nancy Zitsanza said there has been a significant increase in cotton production from last year.
Mrs Zitsanza said last year cotton farmers delivered more than $ 75 million kgs of cotton to merchants compared to 138 million kgs delivered this year.
She said more than 300 000 farmers and approximately one million people are relying on cotton farming in Zimbabwe.
Mrs Zitsanza said Zimbabwe Cotton was rated third in the world in terms of quality.
“There has been significant increase in cotton production. As of last week, cotton farmers had delivered 138 million kgs of cotton to merchants. Last year, cotton farmers delivered 75 million kgs. There are many people who rely on cotton production.
“Zimbabwe cotton is the third best cotton in the world according to the international market ratings. Our cotton is now highly regarded in terms of quality. It is also on demand and there has been underproduction of cotton in the country. The crop has the potential of generating foreign currency,” she said.
Mrs Zitsanza said Government had already started distributing cotton seed ahead of the summer cropping season to ensure that farmers are not inconvenienced and enable increased productivity.
“Government has already started distributing cotton seed and other accompanying inputs to cotton farmers ahead of the summer cropping season. We want farmers to be fully prepared ahead of the rainy season and increase productivity. We want our farmers to surpass what they delivered this year,” she said.
Mrs Zitsanza said Government had put in place a statutory instrument that compels merchants to grade cotton so that there is increased quality.
“Our cotton has increased in terms of quality and is now being highly regarded on the international market because of this grading system. We have four grades that A,B,C and D. Farmers should receive grading results from merchants. All merchants should grade cotton. They do this under Government supervision and monitoring. A better grade fetches more,” she said.
