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Obert Chifamba Agri-Insight
A heavily flawed and manipulated farmers’ data base VERSUS anoble and economically empowering Government cotton input scheme. That’s an apt summation of the current debacle in Zimbabwe’s cotton industry. This topsy-turvy scenario only came to light after the cotton marketing season got underway two weeks ago when farmers started delivering the white gold for sale.

Under the Presidential Input Scheme set to roll for three seasons, farmers are contracted by the State through the Cotton Company of Zimbabwe (Cottco) and are supposed to sell their produce to Cottco.

The Agricultural Marketing Authority (AMA) is tasked with ensuring the orderly marketing of the cotton crop and also issues licenses for the purchase of the white gold as well. But The situation unfolding at the selling points is just complex- the data base being used has become the biggest channel for side marketing.

There is multiple registration of farmers by different contractors and AMA has since issued licenses for the purchase of 380 000 tonnes when initial indications were that this year’s deliveries would be in the region of 100 000 to 125 000 tonnes. First anomaly.

The data base is alleged to be only showing the identity of the farmer and nothing on the hectarage supported by the contractor and neither does it provide a limit on the tonnage a farmer can deliver. Second anomaly.

This creates a leeway for farmers contracted by Government to sell to private contractors prejudicing Government of what’s supposed to theirs. Government invested $42 million in the cotton sector and targets to recover it from the cotton farmers will deliver.

This arrangement is at the moment under serious threat if urgent action is not taken to rectify the anomalies evident on the data base. Cottco has been licensed to buy 80 percent of the cotton yet from the situation on the ground private buyers are allegedly just adding a small amount to the one Cottco is offering and tantalising desperate farmers to jump ship for more cash in the process.

Cottco is paying 55c for Grade A, 50c for Grade B, 45c for Grade C and 40c for Grade D, which essentially is over and above the 18c per kilogramme invested through the input subsidy.

On the other hand, the farmers are also entitled to a five percent export incentive that is supposed to be paid by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ).

And while most buying points in Gokwe, for instance, show that Cottco contracts most farmers, only 12 percent of the farmers appear in the data base.

AMA professes ignorance of how such a situation could have come about. However it obviously needs to be fixed and a properly organised data base filled with the correct information of each farmer

But while this is all going on, it may become necessary to temporarily suspend private buyers from buying the white gold while the data base is redone so that correct records are used in the process.

This Government programme can leave most resourceful farmers capacitated to fund their own operations in future if it is allowed to roll out properly and effectively.

If what is prevailing on the ground is allowed to go on unchecked, it simply means that the farmers will not get the intended empowerment and will still need Government assistance going into the future, which is highly unsustainable.

Production levels that had shown signs of improving will also inevitably take a tumble, which will defeat the logic of Government having done this programme.

Farmers must also not just follow blindly or be tempted by the short-lived joy private buyers will give them if they ditch Government for slightly higher prices.

They must remember that Government had to come in after the same private buyers colluded to give them very low prices that ended up forcing many farmers to abandon the crop for other crops such as tobacco and in some cases, maize.

The seemingly higher and better prices private buyers are offering will only last when there is Government to compete with and the moment Cottco is out of the matrix, the private buyers will return to their old ways and start milking the farmers dry.

But AMA must know what is happening. They need to clearly show how their registration and licensing processes are done and how they ended up licensing the sale of 380 000 tonnes, way over the projected 100 000 to 125 000 tonnes. Is there something that AMA is not telling the nation and the farmers in particular?

Unconfirmed reports say AMA is advising farmers to sell their cotton to both Government and private buyers, which to me is a matter of biting the hand that feeds them. AMA, as a part of Government should actually be trying its level best to make sure all farmers contracted to Cottco stick to their contractor while those affiliated to private buyers deal with their benefactors too.

Investigations into all the alleged anomalies should involve independent parties and not include AMA, which I think should only be called in for verification of grey areas that are unearthed in the process. AMA cannot investigate a system that they are a part of.

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