Harare, (New Ziana) – The Cotton Company of Zimbabwe (Cottco) still owes farmers about 30 percent of payment for deliveries made to its various depots countrywide last year, an official has said.Cottco chief executive officer, Priscillla Mutembwa told journalists that efforts were underway to pay all farmers’ outstanding payments before the onset of the 2022/23 summer cropping season.
“We are trying to improve the production as well as how we can be more prepared to be able to work better with the farmers in terms of input distribution and farmer payments,” she said. “We still owe some farmers about 30 percent of the amount that has been delivered which we are currently working on very vigorously with both the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and our partner banks as well as the Ministry of Finance,” she said.
So far, Cottco has paid $16.7 million to farmers, out of $23 million owed. Mutembwa said Cottco was working very hard to ensure that arrears to its workers are also cleared. She said preparations were ongoing for the roll–out of free Pfumvudza/Intwasa cotton inputs to farmers around the country. “We have not started distribution of free inputs; but we have prepared as much as we can; we normally distribute after the end of October, we are also waiting for some of the inputs to arrive, so we are not too late. We are currently working on making sure that we are prepared,” she said.
The government introduced a number of 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 attractive.
New Ziana
