• Amendment of the Cotton Act of 2005 will help address most of the challenges affecting the sector.
• Issues to do with pricing must be negotiated between a farmer and a cotton company.
• The 2005 Act was tailored to favor more of the ginners than the farmers.

Cotton Board of Zambia says amendment of the Cotton Act of 2005 will help address most of the challenges affecting the sector such as pricing of the crop.
Speaking in an interview with Money FM News, Board Chief Executive Officer Sunduzwayo Banda said the Board wants issues to do with pricing to be negotiated between a farmer and a cotton company, unlike the current situation where prices are set by the ginners.
Mr. Banda stated that the amendments will also address the quality of cotton seed by having harmonized extension services through a multisectoral approach.
“The reason why we want the Act to be redone is because the amendments are going to address our challenges. Our challenges are to do with pricing, the way the prices are set, secondly we want to address the quality of seed, so we will address the quality of seed by having harmonized extension approach. Harmonized service delivery entails that it’s a whole multisectoral approaching to handling extension.”
“The other issue that the Act will address is the issue of input verification, sometimes people give inputs that are not verified in terms of certification of quality. So we want the Act to address all these issues. But major, we want issues to do with pricing to be negotiated between a farmer and a cotton company,” Mr. Banda stated.
He added that the Board has started consultations with regards to the review of the Act, adding that the Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) handling farmers has already been done and the next step is to consult in provinces.
“Once all these are addressed then we can see a shift, then we also want to see production zones in form of possessions where companies are existing and we are able to monitor a single company in a location without other companies interfering in their operations.”
“Now that we will have to curtail it by having an extension officer based in every production zone who is monitoring the activities so that there is no monopoly of markets by a cotton company allocated in a seed production zone,” he added.
And Board Senior Cotton Inspector, Nyambe Kwalombota noted that the 2005 Act had a bias on certain issues as there were no regulations in terms of penalties and it was tailored to favor more of the ginners than the farmers.
“It’s a good development because it will address a lot of issues which were lacking in the sector and I think it will include a lot of things which were left out. The issue of pricing is one of them, quality seed, extension provision, harmonization of extension services and provision of quality chemicals or pesticides.”
“I think consultations have been done in the process of amending this Act, and a lot of views have been taken from all key stakeholders so it will be all encompassing,” Mr. Kwalombota said.
Recently, Agriculture Minister Reuben Phiri said government is in the process of amending the Cotton Act No. 21 of 2005 to stimulate production and attract more players to the sector and appealed to cotton farmers as well as other stakeholders to make submissions to the review of the Act to ensure the law is responsive to the needs of the industry.