Published by the government of Zimbabwe
26 October 2009
Harare — THE Cotton Ginners' Association will soon start implementing the provisions of new cotton legislation that bars side marketing.
The legislation seeks to ensure that all contractors adequately finance production during the 2009/10 farming season without subsequently losing their share of the contracted crop to non-contracting buyers.
CGA director-general Mr Godfrey Buka said this was in terms of Section 13 of Statutory Instrument 142 of 2009 of the Agricultural Marketing Authority (Seed Cotton and Seed Cotton Products) Regulations.
"In this regard, all seed cotton inputs will be collectively warehoused and distributed to farmers through 50 common warehouses managed by the association. CGA members have warehouses throughout the country, which are being used as common input distribution points
"The whole idea of a common inputs fund is to make both the farmers and the ginners benefit in the end by avoiding multiple contracting and timely providing inputs," he said.
A common funding arrangement will guarantee transparency as inputs support from each contractor becomes verifiable and is co-ordinated.
Contractors will, therefore, only be allowed to purchase seed cotton from their own contracted farmers at designated buying points.
The monitoring modalities of the scheme will include AMA Cotton Marketing Technical Committee inspectors as well as the CGA local area committees who will ensure that fair trade practices are observed.
Any contractor operating in violation of the regulations will have their buyer's licence withdrawn.
The overall goals of the common input fund are to increase crop size and quality through provision of adequate inputs to farmers; to boost investor confidence through ensuring fair business practices and to restore sound industrial standards in handling cotton.
Side marketing in the cotton industry has resulted in low production and under-utilisation of infrastructure and ginning capacity in the country.
The Government passed the regulations in August this year to deal with problems affecting the sector.
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