Zimpapers Logo

Business Reporter
The Cotton Company of Zimbabwe will invest more in tillage machinery as it moves towards enhancing yields, managing director Pious Manamike has said.

Conservations tillage is one of the viable options meant to mitigate the effects of climate change, which in the recent years has been causing prolonged dry spells.

Cottco started offering tillage services to its farmers last year, and those whose land was tilled by the tractors achieved better yields even though the rains were erratic.

Mr Manamike, who was addressing stakeholders in Manoti, Gokwe, said the company would intensify the programme through acquisition of more machinery.

“We are buying more tractors so that we can plough a bigger hectarage,” said Mr Manamike.

“It is evident that those who planted using tractors last year achieved better yields.”

Tillage helps conserve moisture at a time of unpredictable rains associated with climate change.

Mr Manamike also said the company will introduce hybrids seeds this year, with higher yields potential compared to the current open pollinated varieties.

“We have conducted trials and we found out that each hectare can produce as much as 11 tonnes. This is quite significant from what we are currently producing per hectare.”

On inputs abuse, Mr Manamike urged farmers to stop the practice, saying such actions were tantamount to sabotaging the Presidential Free Inputs Programme.

Zimbabwe’s cotton industry has been recovering since 2016 after the Government intervened through the Presidential Free Inputs Scheme. Production increased from 28 000 tonnes in 2015, the lowest in nearly two decades to 142 000 tonnes last year.

“I urge you to stop selling the inputs. If you do that, you are destroying your future; you are also destroying the future of the country so you should desist from that,” he said.

Speaking at the same occasion, Gokwe-Kana legislator Mr Owen Ncube challenged farmers to deliver their crop to Cottco, which provided them with the inputs.

“During the buying season, side marketing becomes rampant in cotton growing areas but we urge all cotton farmers to shun side marketing,” said Mr Ncube, in a speech read on his behalf by Gokwe South district administrator Mr Stewart Gwatirinda.

Mr Ncube, who is also Minister of State for National Security said cotton was important to the economy, as it brings in foreign currency, create jobs, offer opportunities for value addition for oil expressing firms, stock feed and textile companies.

“Farmers in cotton growing areas have witnessed improved lifestyles, some are now able to send children to school, some affording to buy basic necessities of life and other social amenities,” said Mr Ncube.