Wilder says they have harvested seventy-five of the nine-hundred acres of cotton they planted. “Typically we’re through by now, preparing seed beds for next year, planting wheat, doing other things, but here we are almost November first and just really getting geared up to hopefully get started picking.”
India’s leading agri-biotech company Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company, acquired a controlling stake in Quton in 2014 from Seed Co in a transaction worth $10 million and the acquisition gave the Indian firm a platform to introduce hybrid seeds to Africa. The African market is expected to make Quton strong and Mahyco’s positioning in the global cotton market.
When asked if the present situation would augur well with the cotton farmer as his realisation is not on expected lines, the ICF President said, “there is a global surplus. There are no takers for Indian cotton as the fibre from India is not standardised.” Due to tight financial situation prevailing in the spinning sector and comfortable availability of quality cotton, the prices are expected to remain steady. “The monsoon would be a major deciding factor for cotton prices for the period between June and October 2018.”
Telangana Governmen’s introduction to online payment mechanism for cotton farmers this season has made a mark. So far, the Cotton Corporation of India has paid Rs. 556 crore for the produce bought from farmers in the State.
The software introduced by the market department at the collection centres urged the farmers to register their names, providing their banking account details and personal identities.
Government latest initiative is meant for not just ensuring cotton farmers produce quality cotton lint for better returns, but to upgrade State-owned Eldoret-based textile miller, Rivatex. The Government has launched a pilot programme which will see hybrid cotton seeds from Israel tried on 500 acres of land in Bura, Tana River County that promise to cut production costs and offer investors better margins.
With the demand for synthetic fibres which includes nylon, acrylic and polyester continuing to increase in Zimbabwean market, cotton farmers are left with no choice but to brace for lower producer prices for the crop in the coming marketing season compared to the previous year.
Synthetic fibres are the result of extensive research by scientists to improve on naturally occurring animal and plant fibres. In general, synthetic fibres are created by extruding fibre forming materials through spinnerets into air and water, forming a thread.
Since the collapse of the Kisumu cotton mills (KICOMI), the textile industry went down with cotton farmers lacking a market for their crops. Now with the official opening of garment industry in Kisumu to boost its textile industry. The occasion was graced by Kisumu Governor Jack Ranguma.
The launch now means an opportunity for many fashion designers to make garments and sell them to the market.
This will deal a blow to the many second hand clothes traders who import their products from various countries abroad.
Mian Shahid, chairman of United International Group, on Sunday demanded a bailout package for cotton farmers affected by recent collapse of the crop in Pakistan.
He stated that dismayed farmers were switching to other crops which could reduce area under cotton cultivation by 20 per cent which would further bring production down.
Textile sector would be hard pressed as four billion dollars would be needed to import cotton which would hit the foreign exchange reserves and gross domestic product growth, he added.
Mali has more than 3.5 million cotton farmers, and 17 processing factories. The state-owned Malian Company for the Development of Textile (CMDT) and the sole cotton exporter in Mali announced that 2014-15 season ended with record production of 233,000 tonnes of cotton fibre versus 185,000 tonnes the previous year.
This is the best ever season in industrial terms: 233,000 tonnes of exportable cotton fibre from 549,000 tonnes of raw cotton, said Moussa Yattara, a technical advisor to the CMDT.
Zimbabwe cotton also known as the white gold had economically uplifted places such as the hot and semi-arid marginalized areas like Gokwe in the Midlands Province. Besides bringing in the much needed foreign currency, the textile, oil-pressing and stock feed industries also benefitted from cotton production in Zimbabwe. But today, the nation cannot talk of a 2015 cotton crop because there is no cotton crop to talk about.
