Cottco launches blitz to encourage cotton production

The Cotton Company of Zimbabwe (Cottco) has embarked on a drive to encourage farmers to increase their crop size in a blitz dubbed ‘donje mumunda’, an official has said. Cottco acting chief executive officer, Munyaradzi Chikasha said the blitz is targeting areas that still have a planting window.

“The Cotton Company of Zimbabwe (Cottco) has embarked on an extensive drive to encourage farmers to plant and increase their hectorage in a blitz dubbed ‘donje mumunda’.

“The drive is targeting areas that still have a planting window such as Mzarabani, Mushumbi, Machaya, Rushinga, Hoya in the Zambezi Valley, then in the Lowveld Chiredzi, Checheche Ngundu as well as Zhomba, Chireya in Gokwe and Uzumba in Mashonaland East,” he said.

He said agricultural extension officers had been deployed to the targeted areas to ensure farmers are adequately supported with all the resources that are needed during the crop establishment stage.

He said Cottco was positioning itself to achieve its target of 260 000 hectares and an intake of 150 000 metric tonnes of seed cotton through the blitz.

“The blitz is running until the end of the planting window on the 15th of February 2024,” said Chikasha.

The government introduced a number of farmer support programmes such as the Presidential Input Scheme and Pfumvudza/Intwasa through which farmers are given seed, fertilisers and chemicals for free, to boost production.

The introduction of support and competitive prices have seen many farmers returning to grow cotton after having abandoned it in favour of other cash crops such as tobacco, whose marketing was orderly and prices profitable.

Cottco contracted 140 000 growers under the presidential inputs scheme in the 2022/23 cropping season.

Zimbabwe’s cotton, mainly produced by smallholder communal farmers with plots ranging from half a hectare to five hectares, is most sought after globally, as it is hand-picked with minimal contamination, thereby maintaining good quality.

New Ziana