The Cotton Board of Zambia says the increased buying price for cotton will encourage more farmers to venture into cotton production.
Mount Meru, one of the biggest buyers of cotton has announced that it will be buying a kilogram of cotton at K15, which is an increase from the K10 that was being offered last year for the same quantity.
Board Senior Inspector Nyambe Kwalombota explained that the ginners are offering K15 for a kilogram of cotton because they feel farmers have been getting low prices for a long time, which has been discouraging many farmers from venturing into cotton production.
Speaking in an interview with the Zambian Business Times-ZBT, Kwalombota said the price increase would attract more farmers to the sector, which will also increase production adding that the board is happy with the price.
He added that if more farmers are motivated to grow cotton and the production increases, more people would be able to benefit from the production in various ways.
“One ginner came up with the price and the reason was they feel the price which was being offered to the farmers was low for a long time and the sector has been going down in terms of production. The major reason they have offered a higher price is to attract more farmers, for any farmer it will make a lot of business sense to grow cotton. ”, he said.
Kwalombota disclosed that the production of cotton is expected to increase from 24, 248 tonnes which was harvested last year to around 30, 000 tonnes this year according to the figures that have been submitted by all the players in the sector.
He said the weather was favourable last year as there was slightly more rain compared to this year but the farmers tried to do a better job this year therefore the expectation that the crop will be slightly better than last year’s.
“We have fewer farmers and less hectarage planted this year but slightly a better crop as compared to last year in terms of the growth, there are fewer farmers but the crop looks better compared to what it was last year”, he said.
