Richard Mgamba, Special Correspondent
12 April 2004
Nairobi — THE TANZANIA government plans to revive the cotton industry to raise production from the current 600 kg to 2,000 kg per hectare.
A study conducted in Mwanza region on the shores of Lake Victoria shows that the country produced less seed cotton per hectare than other neighbouring countries.
Seed cotton production in Kenya and Uganda ranges from 1,400 kg to 1,600 kg per hectare, while in South Africa and Zimbabwe, the production averages 850 kg to 900 kg per hectare.
According to Prem Kapoor, the vice chairman of the Tanzania Cotton Association - an umbrella organisation of private cotton buyers - raising cotton production will help the country achieve its Vision 2025 goal of eradicating poverty.
Speaking in Mwanza recently, Mr Kapoor said that the study, conducted between November last year and March this year, had proved that cotton yields could reach 2,000 kg per hectare if farmers were given the necessary extension services. This means that Tanzania can produce up to 1.2 billion kg of seed cotton per year, up from the current 250 million kg.
Total acreage under the crop per year is estimated at 1.2 million, he added. The demonstration had also shown that a farmer earn $1,920 per hectare, from an outlay of $400 per hectare at the current price of 30 US cents per kg.
However, farmers currently earn only $90 per hectare from an outlay of $150.
In the past season, which ended in December 2003, the industry earned $42.6 million from the export of 256,313 bales of ginned cotton.
Cotton production in Tanzania has declined by about 50 per cent over the past 10 years.
Cotton is grown in 13 of the 21 regions of the Tanzania mainland.
The regions are Shinyanga, Mwanza, Tabora, Mara, Singida, Kagera and Kigoma in the Western Zone, and Morogoro, Coast, Tanga, Iringa, Kilimanjaro and Arusha regions in the Eastern Zone.
However, over 90 per cent of the crop comes from the Western Cotton Growing Zone.
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