Low-Grade Cotton Costs Zimbabwe Farmers $15 Million Annually

According to Godfrey Buka, director general of Zimbabwe’s Cotton Ginners Association, the decrease in the quality of cotton that farmers have been producing in recent years is reducing their income by as much as $15 million annually. There was once a premium paid for high-quality cotton from Zimbabwe, but standards have fallen since the sector was deregulated. Buka estimates the loss due to poor quality at $0.6/lb., which applied to current crop totals would exceed $15 million in lost earnings.

There were high hopes for the African nation’s contract farming program, in which cotton buyers provided farmers with the necessary inputs for the coming crop. However, some buyers say unscrupulous farmers have refused to pay the buyers back for the advance funding, making others reluctant to extend credit to other growers. Growers counter by accusing contractors of insufficiently funding the crops, thus forfeiting their rights to the cotton harvested.

Buka said Zimbabwe now has only a dozen registered contractors who are willing to provide inputs on a credit basis–a 52 percent reduction since 2007. To reverse the trend, the government implemented Statutory Instrument 142 of 2009, creating the Cotton Marketing Technical Committee–which has prosecuting authority–to oversee and enforce contracts for both buyers and sellers.