Cotton Council of Malawi (CCM) has said it has set out a plan to resuscitate the industry from next season.
The council has stepped up efforts to multiply seed and plans to import some from neighbouring countries, amounting to 500 metric tonnes (mt), to be distributed to farmers.
It also eyes establishing more structured markets for the crop.
In an interview, CCM Executive Director Cosmas Luwanda said developments in the current season were a wake-up call for stakeholders to take decisive action.
He said last year, the council was unable to mobilise $2.6 million to import seed, which affected production.
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“We are also working on structuring the market so that we de-risk it. We are doing that by trying now to bring in aggregation of quarter so that anybody who has got an agreement with somebody within the stakeholder groups in the quarter sector are able to be accountable to each other.
“Everyone who owes the other should be able to pay back through that system. We are going into a Memorandum of Understanding with Admarc to provide the facilities for aggregation centres,” Luwanda said.
The plan has since attracted mixed stakeholder feelings.
Cotton Farmers Association of Malawi President Lapson Zidana said structuring markets could scare away farmers.
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“What has weakened the industry is lack of access to seed and, therefore, making seed accessible to farmers will help rejuvenate the industry.
“The seed earmarked for distribution next growing season is what we have been using all along. We are, therefore, not worried that it is not hybrid seed,” Zidana said.
