Cotton growers cry over low prices

SANFROSSA MANYINDA writes @SunZambian FARMERS in Mumbwa have appealed to the government to intervene in cotton pricing as a motivation strategy. The farmers said cotton buyers came with lower prices without consulting or involving the government. “The biggest problem we face as cotton farmers is that the prices are static despite having high labour costs. […]

Cotton growers cry over low prices
SANFROSSA MANYINDA writes @SunZambian FARMERS in Mumbwa have appealed to the government to intervene in cotton pricing as a motivation strategy. The farmers said cotton buyers came with lower prices without consulting or involving the government. “The biggest problem we face as cotton farmers is that the prices are static despite having high labour costs. “While appreciating the fact that farmers are given not only seed but also sprayers and chemicals, regretted that low cotton prices has always been demotivating farmers,” Ms Mary Shanfuko, a cotton farmer lamented. Ms Shanfuko said farmers were made to grow cotton without knowing the cost reflective selling prices for the particular farming season. She said it was not fair to make the cotton growers sell their product using the previous year’s prices, as the cost of production continued to rise. Ms Shanfuko said lack of a stable cotton pricing environment was making it difficult for farmers to have profit in growing the cash crop as her peers always ran at a loss. Government, she said, should consider hiking the price for cotton to motivate the farmers. She said cotton farmers were getting a raw deal in that, the crop had high labour but the output was extremely low. Ms Shanfuko said the women who could not afford to buy seed for other crops including maize and sunflower resorted to growing cotton whose seeds, chemicals and sprayers were given free. Another cotton grower, Johnson Muchila, equally regretted a noted lack of coordination between the Zambian government and cotton buyers. Mr Muchila said cotton buyers determined the price they wanted to buy cotton from the peasant farmers without consulting government. He said last year cotton was sold at K3.70 per kg and this year, it was lower by K20 as cotton buyers had pegged the purchase price at K3.50 “We are finding difficulties in repaying loans because the pricing is too low for us to earn enough income to repay the accrued credit as cotton farmers,” Mr Muchila said.