Cotton Council of Malawi says limited access to cotton seed, high input costs and inadequate investment have contributed to the country’s declining cotton output.
In an interview on Monday, the council’s public relations officer Prisca Jamali said reliance on imported hybrid seed increased production costs and caused planting delays due to foreign exchange constraints.
“The seed costs K95 000 per kilogramme [kg] while open pollinated varieties [OPV] seed costs K22 000 per kg,” she said, explaining the price difference between hybrid and OPV cotton seed.
Jamali said the cotton regulatory authority is establishing a sustainable local seed multiplication system to reduce dependence on imported seed and improve availability for farmers.
She said the council, Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development and cotton ginners are also preparing to provide extension services, particularly in anticipation of El Niño weather conditions.
Malawi Cotton Company field manager Yohane Jim said in an interview that the Balaka-based firm did not buy the crop during the just-ended season, saying it was frustrated by two factors.
He cited low production levels, saying it was not worth running their machines while also pointing out technical challenges that frustrated stakeholders last season.
“Production this year was 3 000 metric tonnes (MT) because out of the 26 000 farmers that grew cotton last season, only 7 000 grew it this season,” said Jim.
This year, cotton output declined to about 4 500 metric tonnes (MT), representing just 20 percent of the projected 22 800MT.
This means this year’s cotton output dropped by 55 percent from 10 000MT last year, raising fears that recent efforts to revamp the sector, deemed critical to the industrialisation drive, have not yielded the desired results.
But the council targets 50 000MT in the coming season.
