Continued reduction of cotton production is going to affect growth of the sector, the Cotton Council of Malawi has said.
In a written response to a questionnaire on Wednesday, the council’s executive director Cosmas Luwanda said the low production levels are contributing to the low utilisation of ginning capacity, which has persisted for a number of years.
He said: “The projected decline reflects a negative reaction by farmers to last season’s disruption of the seed cotton marketing which was occassioned by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The withdrawal has been shown through low hybrid seed uptake by cotton growers that has generally led to low area planted to cotton.”
To restore farmers confidence in the seasons to come, Luwanda said the council and its stakeholders are working on ways to stimulate local processing of cotton into value added products and strengthening production and marketing contracts between growers and off takers.
“The cotton regulations currently being finalised will institutionalise such arrangements,” he said.
First round crop estimates for the 2020/21 growing season projects cotton production to decline by 62.3 percent to 20 103 metric tonnes (MT) from 53 349 MT recorded during the third-round crop estimates.
The development comes following revelations by the Cotton Farmers Association of Malawi that about 10 000 farmers had abandoned cotton production this season owing to lack of loans and last season’s poor markets due to Covid-19 pandemic.
The Malawi Cotton Development Strategy (MCDS) (2019/20 – 2023/24), which aspires to increase cotton production to 200 000MT and productivity to 2 000 kg per hacter by 2024, recognises that development of the sector is an opportunity to diversify the agriculture investment portfolio in Malawi, and increase production of higher value-added products in agro-processing and manufacturing, such as cotton oil and textiles as well as garments.
In an earlier interview, Cotton Farmers Association president Dickson Gundani said cotton production is expensive and it involves a lot, hence; farmers needed support to be able to procure seed and chemicals.
