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Tawanda Mangoma in Chiredzi
The Cotton Company of Zimbabwe (Cottco) here has started distributing inputs for the 2018 /19 farming season targeting over 100 000 farmers to grow the white gold. The surge in the number of farmers is expected to boost cotton output as the crop continues on a growth trajectory in the Lowveld.

Cottco has revamped cotton output over the past three years creating thousands of new jobs while earning hard currency and improving the living standards of people in rural farming communities.

Chiredzi Business Unit manager, Mr Munyaradzi Chikasha yesterday said they had gone a gear up preparing for the forthcoming agricultural season.

“Last season we had around 83 000 farmers whom we issued with one hectare packages towards the production of cotton.

“This season we are targeting over 100 000 farmers in the Lowveld and we are banking on the support from the Presidential Inputs Scheme,” said Mr Chikasha.

He said verification of farmers was currently underway to identify those who received inputs last season, but failed to deliver the crop to Cottco.

“As we give inputs, we are also closely monitoring our farmer database for previous seasons to fish out those who got inputs, but failed to deliver anything.

“We believe if a farmer failed to deliver anything, it means they still have inputs for last season.”

Mr Chikasha said his organisation wanted to work with farmers who appreciated Government’s efforts to boost cotton production.

“The second scenario is the farmer might have abused the inputs or side-marketed the crop and this is what we don’t condone.

“We will not give inputs to such farmers since they are not adding value to the Government programme,” said Mr Chikasha.

In the last farming season, the Chiredzi Business Unit reportedly surpassed its target by 11 000 tonnes after producing 36 000 tonnes of cotton.

“The volumes were high in the 2017/ 18 season. We completed our cotton buying just a few weeks ago and more cotton is still coming to our ginnery from various cotton buying points.

“However, this year, we had to compete for transport with grain farmers,” said Mr Chikasha.