By Christopher Makaza

Cotton Producers and Marketers Association National Chairman, Stewart Mubonderi has urged cotton farmers to desist from side marketing revealing that their association in conjunction with Cottco is touring cotton growing areas to conscientise farmers on payment systems for the 2019 marketing season.

The association, Mubonderi said, was also urging farmers to open FCA accounts for the smooth floor of payments.

In an interview with Harare Post, Mr Mubonderi revealed that his Association is also encouraging farmers to sell their white gold to Cottco especially those who benefitted from the Presidential Input Support Scheme and those who received inputs from the parastatal.

“We are doing outreach programmes to all cotton growing areas countrywide and we are currently in Gokwe. We are urging farmers to open FCA accounts before the opening of the marketing season so that it will be easier for the payment processes after deliveries.

“We are engaging banks so that they move around the cotton growing areas and assist farmers to open the needed FCA accounts. This will reduce transport costs that farmers may incur if they are to travel to district or provincial centres to access the banks.”

Mr Mumbonderi also highlighted that they are discouraging the issue of side marketing where farmers sell their cotton to private buyers who offer a few cents more than the one paid by contractors who would have provided them with farming inputs.

He described the current cotton crop situation as good and encouraging despite erratic rainfall patterns the country received and some challenges being faced by the cotton industry which include shortage of chemicals and fertilisers.

Cotton farmers will receive 30% of their sales in foreign currency and the usual 10% export incentive as a way of motivating them.