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Obert Chifamba Agri-Insight

Last week, the Agricultural Marketing Authority (AMA) convened a press conference in Harare to update the media on the progress made so far in distributing cotton inputs for the 2023/24 cropping season.

The presser came on the backdrop of growing apprehension among stakeholders in the cotton industry following Government’s recent decision to mandate the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) with the distribution of cotton inputs, replacing Cottco.

The take-over was with immediate effect and came at a time when everybody was seized with trying to make sure all farmers received inputs in time to plant as soon as they received meaningful rains.

Predictions of a possible El Nino this season have not made the situation any easier, as they have naturally generated loads of anxiety among farmers and other critical stakeholders.

Everyone can therefore be easily forgiven for targeting to utilise the little rains that may come their way given that the season is expected to have normal to below normal rains.

AMA’s disclosure that only 32,37 percent of the inputs had been distributed as at November 30, 2023 was disturbing to say the least given that the first half of the season — October to December — is already in the last month and all aspiring farmers were naturally expected to be in possession of all the inputs they need or should have completed planting under normal circumstances.

Some of the inputs are reportedly at the distribution points awaiting distribution while some are still said to have not yet reached the distribution points.

According to statistics availed by AMA, the seed distributed as at November 30, 2023 is enough to cover 87 818 hectares while the country is targeting 271 286 hectares this season.

The number of farmers that had also received inputs was 52 654 during the same period yet the number of growers is now in excess of 400 000, which means there is still a lot of work to be done in a very limited space of time.

Traditionally, planting of cotton starts in October depending on the area in which a farmer is situated with the harvesting starting as early as April in some of the areas.

It appears this may be a tall order to accomplish this time around given that the bulk of farmers have not yet received their inputs.

Some of the farmers are situated in areas like Chitekete and Chireya in Gokwe, Mabeye and Chinyamukwakwa in Chiredzi, Gungwa, Mukumbura and Chiwonde in Mt Darwin and Chadereka and Mudzingadutu in Muzarabani that become very difficult to access once they receive the first rains.

They are part of the priority areas where input distribution is done first to make sure they will not be affected by the rains.

The reality on the ground just but paints a grim picture of the season at the moment given that everyone, including the Government is pushing to see the cotton industry reclaiming its glory of the past when it would get everyone along the value chain busy.

In recent times, the industry had started performing well in the wake of many programmes the Government rolled out to boost production and the crop was slowly regaining the farmers’ confidence once again after going through a very lean stretch of time that saw many contemplating dumping it with some switching to tobacco.

It is again during these contemporary seasons that cotton prices had been gradually starting to attract farmers, thanks to Government interventions meant to cushion producers from price fluctuations emanating from problems deeply rooted in global economic downturns and policies unfriendly to third world cotton farmers.

There is, however, still a lot to fight for given that the inputs can still be distributed and allow farmers to plant and get decent yields.

This is possible if concerted efforts are made to move the inputs to distribution points and disburse them expeditiously.

Such a decision may also need a revision of the current set-up to allow AMA’s clerks to work with more personnel from different organisations and give pace to the process.

At the moment one clerk is reportedly overseeing the distribution process at four or five centres, which is making the exercise slow.

Going forward, it may be necessary for stakeholders that include AMA, farmers’ representatives, GMB, Agritex, the Government and some private sector representatives to urgently put together a reaction team to oversee the distribution of the inputs with Agritex and AMA playing an advisory role.

Agritex has been in the game for many decades and has records of farmers so they will just tap into that rich legacy to get things going.

Once the situation normalises, the current situation can then be addressed and fine-tuned to make it more user-friendly than it currently is.

The Government may then need to work closely with key stakeholders and put in place a fool proof solution that can be used even into the future for the good of production not only for cotton but many other crops.

We need to avoid a repetition of the current impasse if the agriculture sector is to successfully play its role as the backbone of the economy.

It is clear that the Government’s decision was pro-development and only needed to be implemented when there was still time for all key stakeholders to add their input and thrash out the modalities of rolling it out effectively.

Maybe preparations for its roll out should even have started way before the 2022/23 season ended so that it would be implemented during the off-season to allow time for corrections where it would not have come out to satisfaction.

This would have also enabled them to pick out both positives and negatives and iron them out ahead of the season and by the time the season would have set in, everything would be in place for a grand take-off.

For now, farmers cannot help but feel exposed to those tough times they were just beginning to forget.

The majority that I talked to feel GMB and Cottco are making them pawns in their game of chess given that the two parastatals owe some of the farmers some money for produce they delivered to their depots.

The general impression to the farmers is that no one will take responsibility and settle the matter, hence the need to also involve them through their representatives in the discussions currently taking place to fine-tune the process.

The farmers just need that assurance that what they are owed is not going to be swept into the dustbin but will still be paid.

And they also need to know who they will talk to as they make follow-ups on the payments.

This may make their situation better, as they wait for the rains and the inputs to finally arrive, that is, if they have not yet received theirs.