COTTON farmers have called on the Government to widen the gap between grade prices to stimulate the production of quality cotton on the backdrop of the announcement of high pre-planting grade-based prices for the 2023 marketing season.
The Government, last year, announced the introduction of grade-based differential prices to boost the production of quality cotton after stakeholders in the clothing and textile industry raised the flag over the poor quality of seed cotton farmers are producing.
Cotton Producers and Marketers Association chairman, Mr Stewart Mubonderi said the announcement of the grade-based price differential would go a long way in stimulating the production of quality cotton.
“The announcement of a grade-based cotton price system is a welcome development and a strong stimulant to the production of quality cotton.
“However, better quality cotton would have been offered on the market if the difference between the grades was significant,” said Mr Mubonderi.
A one cent difference in price gained between grade D and C cotton at US$0, 40 and US$0, 41 respectively does not motivate farmers to thoroughly grade their cotton, observed Mr Mubonderi.
He further observed that grade-based price incentives would allow the country to produce good quality and marketable cotton and enhance sustainability of the sector.
Affirming the importance of paying farmers high prices for different cotton grades, Cotton Ginners Association (CGA) acting chairman Mr Caos Nzenze said private contractors were paying their growers grade-based prices on top of the US$0, 30 and $32, 50 per kilogramme announced by Government last year.
“The announcement by Government of a grade-based price is a fair practice and as private contractors we will pay our farmers using that format. However, this will be subject to the world market price at the time of marketing.
“This past marketing season private cotton contractors paid their growers top up to money based on the different grades with the highest paid farmer getting US$0, 40 per kilogramme,” said Mr Nzenze.
Paying for seed cotton using the sliding scale from the high A grade to D will act as an incentive to inspire the production of quality cotton by farmers.
The Government will reward production of quality seed cotton starting from the base of the cotton to clothing value chain from this year going forward.
For the just ended season, farmers received US$0, 30 and $32, 50 per kilogramme for grade D price but no formula or value was ascribed for the different grades.
Agricultural Marketing Authority (AMA) chief executive officer Mr Clever Isaya said in accordance with Statutory Instrument 188 of 2022, Section 10(f), merchants were supposed to pay growers grade differential prices for their seed cotton after grading it by November 30 each year.
However, what cotton farmers got for the price differential was only at the discretion of the contractor.
Statistics with AMA indicate that the lowest grade seed cotton has increased from 45 percent in 2017 to 66 percent in 2021. In 2021 the second lowest grade (grade C) percentage was 28 percent with grade A and B only accounting for a mere combined total of 5, 7 percent. – The Herald
