Cotton farmers should brace for a better future if
recent benefits accrued through contract farming are to be sustained,
experts say.
Bunda District Cotton Inspector Igore Manonga, told this paper recently that the introduction of contract farming almost five years ago has had a lot of benefits to farmers hence the need to sustain it and work on the challenges.
Some 500,000 rural households depend directly on the sector for their livelihoods.
“In Bunda for example, production went up from an average of between 250 kgs and 300 kgs per acre before the introduction of contract farming to between 300 kgs and 600 kgs p during the 2010 marketing season,” said Manonga.
He added that there are some farmers who produce up to 1000 kgs per acre thanks to the initiative.
And according to the cotton inspector for Butiama District, Alphone Ngewagale almost every district where the initial project of contract farming was undertaken, production per acre has gone up commendably.
Basically, contract farming refers to an agricultural production carried out according to an agreement between a buyer and farmers.
This agreement establishes conditions for the production and marketing of cotton whereby buyers, who in Tanzania’s case are cotton ginners, provide the farmers with loans for purchasing farm inputs (seeds and pesticides) as well as technical advice. The farmers are in turn obliged to sell their cotton to the ginners.
However, said Manonga, there are a number of challenges that need immediate redress.
One of the issues, he said, is that sometimes, ginners fail to distribute farm inputs to farmers on time.
“For instance, farmers are required to receive cotton seeds from ginners on October 15 but in some cases, they receive the seeds in December…. Likewise, while farmers are required to receive pesticides by January 15, we have had cases whereby ginners bring the pesticides as late as February and sometimes even in March…. This needs to be worked on,” he advised.
Tanzania earned USD159.3m (about 254.4bn) from cotton exports during the year to June 2013, according to the Bank of Tanzania’s Monthly Economic Review for July 2013.
Currently, Tanzania is Africa’s fourth-largest producer of cotton after Mali, Burkina Faso and Egypt, according to Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) figures.
There are over 40 ginning companies and more than 14 million people employed in the cotton sub-sector, thus reinforcing the need for the government to make contract farming an important aspect of growing the crop as the case in Zambia, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
Bunda District Cotton Inspector Igore Manonga, told this paper recently that the introduction of contract farming almost five years ago has had a lot of benefits to farmers hence the need to sustain it and work on the challenges.
Some 500,000 rural households depend directly on the sector for their livelihoods.
“In Bunda for example, production went up from an average of between 250 kgs and 300 kgs per acre before the introduction of contract farming to between 300 kgs and 600 kgs p during the 2010 marketing season,” said Manonga.
He added that there are some farmers who produce up to 1000 kgs per acre thanks to the initiative.
And according to the cotton inspector for Butiama District, Alphone Ngewagale almost every district where the initial project of contract farming was undertaken, production per acre has gone up commendably.
Basically, contract farming refers to an agricultural production carried out according to an agreement between a buyer and farmers.
This agreement establishes conditions for the production and marketing of cotton whereby buyers, who in Tanzania’s case are cotton ginners, provide the farmers with loans for purchasing farm inputs (seeds and pesticides) as well as technical advice. The farmers are in turn obliged to sell their cotton to the ginners.
However, said Manonga, there are a number of challenges that need immediate redress.
One of the issues, he said, is that sometimes, ginners fail to distribute farm inputs to farmers on time.
“For instance, farmers are required to receive cotton seeds from ginners on October 15 but in some cases, they receive the seeds in December…. Likewise, while farmers are required to receive pesticides by January 15, we have had cases whereby ginners bring the pesticides as late as February and sometimes even in March…. This needs to be worked on,” he advised.
Tanzania earned USD159.3m (about 254.4bn) from cotton exports during the year to June 2013, according to the Bank of Tanzania’s Monthly Economic Review for July 2013.
Currently, Tanzania is Africa’s fourth-largest producer of cotton after Mali, Burkina Faso and Egypt, according to Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) figures.
There are over 40 ginning companies and more than 14 million people employed in the cotton sub-sector, thus reinforcing the need for the government to make contract farming an important aspect of growing the crop as the case in Zambia, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
SOURCE:
THE GUARDIAN
