Maravi

(HERALD) Farmers, ginners to continue price negotiations

Farmers, ginners to continue price negotiations
New Ziana

THE Cotton Ginners’ Association and farmers have agreed to go back to the negotiating table for a review of the cotton price, an official has said. This followed failure to agree on the minimum price for the crop at a cotton conference held on Tuesday.

Cotton farmers are protesting against the minimum price of US$0,30 per kg, which they felt was not sustainable. Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union director Mr Paul Zakariya yesterday said they had resolved that stakeholders should meet again next week to find ways to improve the price.

“We agreed to review the price of US$0,30 and also that no buyer should pay anything below US$0,30.”

“US$0,30 is the minimum ginners should pay cotton farmers for the lowly graded cotton,” said Mr Zakariya

Competition, he added, was still open as buyers could still pay more to lure farmers.

In neighbouring countries, cotton was sold at a lower price than US$0,30 with farmers still realising profits because of low production costs

In Mozambique, farmers are being paid about US$0,22 per kg while in Zambia and Malawi respectively the price is between US$0,25 and US$0,30.

However, in Zimbabwe, farmers are demanding between US$1-US$1,75 per kg owing to the high cost of production. The CGA has remained adamant that it cannot pay the prices that farmers were asking for.

They argued that the cotton had to go through various other production processes, with cotton lint currently fetching about US$0,78 on the world market.

The ginners also called on farmers to boost their production per hectare as well as improving the quality of their crop.

Mr Zakariya urged Government to assist the farmers through pushing for a decrease in the production costs.

“Government should come up with schemes to cushion cotton farmers to lower production cost for farmers to realise profit.”

“Currently the cost of production is very high, forcing farmers to demand more which does not tally with the world market,” said Mr Zakariya.

He also urged Government to introduce modern farming methods, which would be less expensive.

“Government should reconsider bio-technology in cotton production which has low production costs, few inputs and modified seeds which cannot be easily attacked by pests and diseases,” he added.

This technology, he said, has been used successfully in Brazil and other countries which are top cotton producers in the world.

Cotton, popularly referred to as “white gold”, is one of the country’s top agricultural exports, coming second after tobacco. — New Ziana.

Labels: COTTON, PAUL ZAKARIYA

posted by MrK @ 4:15 PM