Constructed
during the colonial era by the Ian Smith regime, the road is the nerve which
connects the arid land that grows nothing but cotton to the crop market.
Cotton, proudly known as white gold is now just but a curse to those who grow
it.The prices of cotton have fallen, while the cost of inputs skyrockets and
those who put in the hard labour to plant, tend and harvest the crop only have
bad health, huge debts and a bleak future to show for it.
It is with nostalgia that former Sanyati legislator Zacharia Ziyambi, narrates
the past as if it were yesterday, how cotton was then the crop to grow. it
always left people with cash in their pockets, farmers acquired assets and they
were the “bosses”.Cotton was the crop to grow at that time and that is why it
got the name white gold,” he said.
Imagine after selling your crop and getting instant cash. And what is more,
buyers would come again later with bonuses for farmers. This is how good it
was,” he says with a worried look in his face.Now all our labour is in vain.
Farmers have nothing to show for the seasons of toiling and most have lost
interest in the crop but their peculiar weather and poverty force them to
grudgingly pick knapsacks with dangerous chemicals to tend to the curse that
has become cotton.
Maggie Matonzi (78), has been involved in cotton farming for years but despite
the good rains, she is not happy even with the prospects of a good harvest. the
prices and fights over the crop which have turned political just don’t inspire
her anymore.My family has depended on this crop all our lives, ever since I was
a girl, but now we just grow cotton because we have to,” she said resignedly.
We can’t grow anything else here and if we don’t grow cotton we won’t be able
to pay fees for our children.This is the curse we must endure, despite the
meagre returns, we must grow it.”These sad stories and the real threat Zimbabwe
faces of farmers abandoning cotton, forced the government to pour in $100
million through Cottco in free seed and cotton inputs to lure growers back to
the business.
Instead of solving the problem, the curse of the crop actually got worse,
exposing the rural folk to the vice of Zanu PF politics of patronage and
bondage, while Cottco has been drawn into a market war with competitors.Chiefs,
Zanu PF leaders and other corrupt middlemen are now reportedly being used to
force farmers into shunning other cotton buyers, forcing them to sell their
produce only to Cottco, creating a monopoly in the process.
Source: New Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Wednesday, 28 June 2017