WITH less than a month before the onset of serious final summer agricultural
preparations, about 75percent of cotton farmers in Muzarabani, Mashonaland
Central Province, say they still have not been paid for cotton delivered to Cottco
earlier in the year.
Yet, at a meeting held at Mahuwe in Muzarabani in May this year, the Minister of
Agriculture, Dr Anxious Masuka, assured farmers that they would be paid on delivery
of their crops. This apparently has not happened.
Worse still, it appears the farmers are in the dark because there is no communication
to the farmers about what is happening, or when they can expect payment so that
the farmers can plan for the 21023/2024 farming season.
Last week cotton farmers in Muzarabani expressed frustration, saying they have no
means to begin preparations for the 2023/2024 farming season since they have not
received even the RTGS component of the payment for delivering their cotton to
Cottco.
The farmers said while they was no official communication from the company, what
they are aware of is that the situation must be “very dire”, as even Cottco workers
are telling them that they, too, have not been paid since June this year.
October 15 is usually the deadline for dry land preparations for the cotton farmers
and they are concerned that both the lack of communication from Cottco and the
inordinate delays in paying for the crop delivered will force farmers to go into
production of other crops, an example being either tobacco or mapfunde/millet.
There appears to be a growing market for tobacco, which is then used for making
snuff, while Delta Corporation has been working with smallholder farmers in the
district for production of mapfunde/millet used in production of its traditional beer
brand, Chibuku.
“Cotton is one crop that, in the past, helped villagers send their children to school,
but now we have nowhere to start. Most of us are saying it is better to grow tobacco
or mapfunde/millet.
“I think there is a serious disconnect between what the Government’s objectives and
vision are and what cotton farmers want and expect. What Cottco is doing is not
aligned to the vision and objectives of the Government,” complained one single
parent.
Other farmers say they regret not have joined a project run by Delta Corporation
under which smallholder farmers produce traditional grains/mapfunde/millet.
Traditional grains perform well under the conditions obtaining in Muzarabani District.

Villagers were afraid of being identified lest they be victimised for complaining about
the raw deal they are getting at the hands of Cottco.
But the farmers expressed their displeasure, pointing out that some farmers who
delivered their cotton later than others have since received payment, while those
who delivered earlier are still to be paid.
“We are beginning to suspect that Cottco buyers could be asking for kickbacks and
that is why they can only be prioritising payment for farmers who delivered later than
those who did so earlier,” said one male cotton grower, who claimed the cotton buyer
for their area informed him “there was no money to pay farmers”.
Cottco and the Ministry of Agriculture were approached for comment last week.
While Cottco responded, the Ministry had not done so by the time of going to print.
Cottco likes to portray itself as transforming communities.
However, right now the estimated 75 percent of the farmers who are still awaiting
payment for the cotton they delivered, would dispute that there is transformation to
their livelihoods, because what is happening to them is a turn for the worse. They
claim they are being consigned to an era they long left as they seek to develop and
improve their livelihoods.
In its explanation, Cottco said that the non-payment to cotton farmers was because,
“the onset of the 2023 cotton marketing season was marred by liquidity challenges,
which restricted cash flows from financial institutions, thereby, resulting in delayed
farmer payments countrywide”.
Asked why the delays were not communicated to farmers, Cottco claimed that
farmers were engage through their unions, “”and various other platforms, which
include their local leadership, mass media, text messages and one-on-one
meetings”.
On when the outstanding payments were going to be made, Cottco’s corporate
communications manager, Constance R Makoni-Thondhlana, said:
“Cottco has paid a total of US$16,7 million from the required US$23 million, the outstanding USD6.3
million balance is being paid from our export earnings, part of which will be liquidated to satisfy the
remaining 15 percent RTGS component that is owed to our farmers.
“We are on course to pay our farmers before the beginning of the next season.”
In recent years cotton farmers have received a raw deal, not only because of
inordinate delays in payment for cotton delivered, but in some cases they were given
groceries in lieu of payment for their cotton.
The offshoot of this treatment of cotton farmers was a migration to other crops. This
was until the Government stepped in with the Presidential Cotton Input Scheme. Still
cotton growers wonder how it is possible that they could be on the eve of another
season without receiving any payment for crops from the previous farming season.