Cotton farmers in trouble

A price negotiating team made up of farmers’ unions’ representatives and the Cotton Ginners Association’s representatives was supposed to come up with a price for cotton before planting began.

When farmers realised that there was no agreed price, some retuned the inputs, others kept them, while others returned the seed and used the fertiliser on other crops.

Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union president, Wonder Chabikwa, told The Zimbabwean that the crops some farmers chose were affected by drought.

“Most cotton farmers are in dry regions and the alternative crops have been severely affected by the drought. I don’t think they will be able pay the money back,” he said.

He said the failure to come up with a price had left the farmers in a precarious situation.

“We were supposed to come up with a price. Ginners had already signed contracts with farmers and handed out inputs. Once the farmers realised that the price had not been set they chose not to produce cotton,” he said.

The issue of pricing has become a perennial problem for cotton production in the country with farmers continually calling for higher prices.

In the 2012 to 2013 season, cotton declined by at least 16 percent compared to the previous season, with farmers being pushed out of the sector by poor prices.

During last year’s marketing season, farmers and ginners again failed to reach an agreement on prices. For the 2011 to 2012 season, farmers planted a total of 422,000 hectares compared to this year’s 307,000 hectares.