Tale of season’s exciting and depressing moments The cotton crop planted under the Pfumvudza/Intwasa programme was doing well in most parts of the country with farmers expecting a good harvest. (File pic)

Obert Chifamba-Agri-Insight

THE 2021/22 cropping season experienced constantly changing scenarios. Today’s offering will look at those issues that became the most discussed during and even after the season.

Of course, they will not be in any particular order and neither will they be covered in their entirety owing to their voluminous nature. 

 As an interested stakeholder, what do you think were the most discussed issues in the 2021/22 cropping season? 

Yes, you got it right! 

There was quite a handful of matters that grabbed the attention of everyone connected to farming in one way or the other.

Naturally, it seems everyone in the world of farming farmers, service providers, Government and consumers, to name just a few, at some point got seized with seriously debating one or two issues to do with the way the season was going.

There was the false start to the season that saw rains only coming in the second (11-20 December) and third (21-30 December) periods of the season. 

This saw farmers rushing to make the most of the rains and planting their crops. 

A punishing dry spell was soon to follow, which saw the germinating crops getting scorched to death by the blistering sun.

When the rains finally returned in January, they were in lavish quantities that induced leaching and instead of supporting high yields, only served to subdue them. 

February was to be characterised by very dry weather, which was very uncharacteristic of that month since it is traditionally known for incessant, but soft rains to induce ripening of crops.

This sudden turn of things easily excited debate among all concerned stakeholders and everywhere people would be discussing food security issues and proffering possible solutions out of the natural disaster.

It was, however, the decent and in some cases bumper yields that farmers later scored, which eventually allowed some of the issues to die a natural death to set the stage for fresh ones. 

Obviously, after harvesting the next issue, farmers were seized with marketing, which involved thorough scrutiny of the prices on offer. The issue of viable and non-viable prices immediately took centre stage, with most farmers arguing that the pre-planting prices announced for some crops by the Government had since been rendered unviable by unfavourable developments in the economy. 

Debate on this matter is always raging, as farmers always feel they should get more than what buyers, including the Government, will be offering. 

Their argument naturally makes sense because they are the ones who feel the pinch of the ever-rising input and service charges that are quoted in hard currency, yet they get their earnings in local currency. This will be a matter for another day.

There was the issue in which CBZ Bank was targeting to contract at least 36 000 farmers, but things did not come out as planned, with the number ending up in the region of 20 000 or less. 

Prospective farmers had gotten excited about the development and were disappointed at the last minute when things failed to shape up to their expectations. 

Some farmers producing crops under contract arrangement were also left fuming after late disbursements of top dressing fertiliser – Ammonium Nitrate (AN), especially when the incessant rains of the month of January needed them to split apply the fertiliser to replenish the nutrients being leached through waterlogging.

This was a matter that gave farmers sleepless nights after seeing their crops yellowing when they thought they were going to easily replicate the bumper harvest of the 2020/21 season. 

The 2020/21 season had an almost similar rainfall pattern with the 2021/22 season, as they were both characterised by late starts and all had incessant rains at the end. 

This had gotten farmers excited thinking they were in for a repeat of the previous season and naturally ignited a lot of debate on how the two seasons were turning out to be alike.

Cotton farmers on the other hand had their attention split between what was happening during the season and what had transpired in the previous seasons. 

Some had outstanding payments from the 2020 cropping season, which they were still chasing. 

This group would use the slightest opportunity that presented itself to discuss how the payment would not mean anything given the volatile nature of the economic environment prevailing in the country. 

These farmers would swear they would never grow the crop again, but still wished someone would wave a magic wand and make the Cotton Company of Zimbabwe (Cottco) pay them their dues.

The Government, however, joined the debate by availing payments for the farmers, which in a way allowed the momentum it had gathered to diffuse and shift to other matters at hand. 

Attention did not seem to leave cotton easily with the Government once again torching another animated and exciting debating session after designating the white gold an export crop and extending a US$60 plus $6 500 per 200 kilogramme bale on-the-spot payment incentive for the 2022 marketing season.

The debate generated by the move seems to be hinting at an increased hectarage for the crop next season amid indications the current selling season is going on well.

Maize producers are also getting US$90 plus $75 000 per tonne, which is expected to motivate deliveries to the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) as the nation moves to fill the strategic grain reserves (SGR) and boost both household and national food security. 

Before the Government announced the move, farmers had already started a fierce debate on the viability of selling their crop and getting payments in local currency only yet they were securing most services and even inputs using the United States dollar. 

Some farmers had even threatened to withhold their grain prompting the Government to instruct the GMB to work hand in hand with security forces to make sure there was no sanctioned movement of grain and confiscate anything not cleared for movement.

Away from the grain issues, tobacco farmers got something to talk about after the Government revised their foreign currency retention percentage to 75 up from 60 percent in a move meant to cushion them from the volatile inflation bedevilling the economy.

Some of the farmers, however, feel they should have been given all their earnings in hard currency arguing that buyers were bringing in cash allocated to buying the crop and, even as the tobacco marketing season is drawing to an end, that debate is still raging. 

Auction floors will be winding up sales this week while their contract counterparts will remain open a little bit longer. This season’s good prices have also become a talking point with the highest price per kilogramme, hitting US$6,80, while the lowest has been US$0,10 for both contract and auction floors.

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