CDT sees cotton production doubling

Cotton Development Trust (CDT) anticipates that cotton output will double in the 2012/2013 season from last season’s 110 000 metric tonnes to about 200 000 metric tonnes.

Production in the past season went up to an estimated 110 000 metric tonnes from 52 456 metric tonnes the previous year, according to figures sourced from the purchases made by the cotton ginners in Malawi.

The rise can be attributed to the response on the prices in the 2011 marketing season, when seed cotton prices went to a record high of K200 per kilogramme which stimulated farmers to grow a larger crop with expectation that the price would be maintained.

The impact of the MK 1.6 billion fund by the Malawi Government also played a role.

CDT chairperson Patrick Khembo said according to this season’s registration and the distributed seed, 277 000 hectares may have been planted with 440 000 farmers.

“We are aware that there were some challenges in some areas as seed might have been received rather late due to some logistical constraints.  A verification exercise is under way at the moment to establish actual figures on the ground,” he said.

Khembo said they are working at getting farmers to increase their cotton productivity, arguing that there is potential to even produce 1 500 kilogrammes or above, per hectare, but farmers currently produce between 600 and 800 kilogrammes per hectare.

Available figures indicate that cotton in Malawi is grown by about 200 000 farming families on 50 000 hectares in the cotton growing areas of Shire valley, Balaka, Machinga, Phalombe, Blantyre, Mwanza, Neno and Karonga.

Currently, Malawi exports 95 percent of the cotton, and the remaining five percent is processed locally.