Govt vows support for 520k cotton farmers amid yield decline

By Caleb Chikwawawa

The government has pledged financial and material support for over half a million primary producers of cotton under a contract scheme run by the lands ministry.

The project is targeting a yield of 285,000 hectares of the white gold by end of this cropping season, Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries Water and Rural Development Permanent Secretary Obert Jiri told journalists Thursday.

Jiri was speaking on the sidelines of the World Cotton Day commemorations marked by some exhibitions in Harare.

“We are going to support 520,000 cotton farmers with a target of almost 285,000 hectares of cotton,” Jiri said.

“Cotton seed that we have is abundant and could last two to three years going forward.

“Fertiliser for those being supported by the government is sufficient. So, we are expecting a better yield this time as compared to last season.”

Jiri said the national yield of the crop has been affected by the effects of climate change in recent years.

Coupled with low demand and increased imports of fabric, the demand for the crop went down.

Added Jiri, “The government has brought in new hybrids which are more resilient to climate change.”

He also said companies using cotton as a raw material to produce goods should now be roped in to support the primary producers of the crop for them to realise benefit from the crop.

Jiri said the country looks forward to increasing production of cotton.

“The last few years have seen us not doing so well in terms of cotton.

“We were at our lowest thirteen thousand metric tonnes in 2024 and last year we were on 28,000 metric tonnes. Of course this has weekend our textile industry and increased our reliance on imports.

“We must turn the graph up. We must be able to produce our cotton. At some point, we were producing 350,000 metric tonnes of cotton in this country.”

Cotton Company of Zimbabwe (COTTCO) board chairperson Sifelani Jabangwe said that climate change, regulatory and contracting issues were some of the challenges that affected the industry.

“We obviously had challenges over the years, which are some of things that we need to look at as we gather like we have today with all the stakeholders.

“Over the years, we have experienced a reduction in volumes and the yields due to climate change issues, policy regulatory issues, farmer issues, contractor issues and so forth.

“These are issues within the control of partners in this room. So, we can solve these issues and grow the sector.

“We need to use opportunities such as this to identify and set actions for improvement for the sector,” Jabangwe.