NOEL IYOMBWA writes
@SunZambian
FARMERS should take cotton as a business by improving productivity, says Cotton Board of Zambia (CBZ) senior inspector Nyambe Kwalombota.
Mr Kwalombota said that in the past six years the cotton industry has not been growing as farmers produced less cotton than expected.
He attributed low cotton output to bad weather and expired chemicals to control destructive insects.
Speaking in an interview Mr Kwalombota also suspected that the seed that was being given to farmers could be questionable in terms of quality.
Mr Kwalombota further explained that the board together with other key stakeholders was trying to harmonize extension services.
“We are already having seminars to make sure that all ginneries have taken their extension officers for training so that they teach the farmers out there, “he said
He observed that the low price which offered to farmers had made the sector stagnant as a result farmers only come in a given season when the price is a bit high.
“When the price is high we have more farmers during that particular season but when it’s low they won’t be there in the next
And Mr Kwalombota said Eastern province was the only region which was doing fine in terms of rainfall while Southern province seemed to have challenges in terms of rainfall patterns which were affecting production.
He said that local farmers had the capacity of up to 350,000 tonnes but it has been producing in the range of 100,130 tonnes a year.
