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At independence cotton was seen as a major engine for rural development, a cash crop ideally suited for small-scale growers who could produce a very high quality product, once they had been given seed for the most desirable varieties and were placed under contract so that they could be lent the required inputs.

Zimbabwe benefited in a number of ways. The nation benefited with higher exports. Hundreds of thousands of families benefited by having, for the first time, a fairly decent cash income. Industrial jobs were created at the ginneries and further downstream at the processing plants for the cotton seed, largely processed into cooking oil and stockfeed and at what was in earlier years a viable spinning and weaving factory that processed a noticeable percentage of the fibre.

Indeed so efficient that a special trade deal had to be negotiated with South Africa over the export of Zimbabwean textiles.

Cotton earned the nickname “white gold”, not just for the way it boosted national wealth, but for the way the industry spread the fruits of that wealth across a large number of households, reducing inequalities by boosting the incomes of the poorest.

There were bad years. Zimbabwe does have periodic drought. But the system could cope with this. What was more difficult to cope with was a set of problems, largely the result of lack of will to adapt to changed circumstances.

World prices for cotton fibre fell, a circumstance that others coped with, but which Zimbabweans sometimes lacked the flexibility to do likewise. We need to remember that the seed prices would not have fallen, for example.

Several companies entered the industry. Some were better than others in creating close contractual relationships with the farmers. Some farmers cheated, signing contracts with one company but selling to another.

The de-industrialisation during the hyperinflation damaged markets for local consumption and made it very difficult to pay farmers full value for what they sold. The business is built around delayed payments, acceptable in a contract system and when inflation is low, but not in those difficult times.

And finally the spinning and weaving industry basically collapsed through a mix of almost zero recapitalisation for new modern equipment and bad management.

The Government has started to react. Last year 200 000 households were helped with inputs to grow one hectare each, a scheme that had only modest success because of the drought and this year there are plans to double that to 400 000 households with an expectation of decent rains and so a decent crop.

That is a good start to rebuilding the industry. But more is needed. We need to ensure that buyers of cotton have access to functioning ginneries, that local industry can process the cotton seed into oil and stockfeed and that suitable markets can be found for high-quality long-fibre hand-picked cotton.

As we move forward we need to revive the textile industry.

This will almost certainly require starting from scratch identifying suitable foreign investors and making sure these investors have a smooth ride to build their factories, import their machines and hire a few thousand Zimbabwean workers.

We will be competing with other countries, but with a relatively better-educated workforce and an assured supply of quality fibre, all we need in addition is a helpful bureaucratic process.

Cotton can once again become a major component of our agri-business mix, but we need to have active policies that work. The industry cannot revive on auto-pilot.