Publish Date : 18-Dec-2017
Cotton farmers and government officials agree to promote the production of by-products like sanitary pads and biomass fuels, to create jobs and diversify the copper-dependent economy.
About five dozen Zambian cotton farmers, ginners, oil crushers and government officials have drafted an action plan to boost the production of cotton by-products, such as briquettes and pellets for fuel made from cotton stalks, and women's sanitary pads made with cotton linters, the fuzz left after the cotton ginning process.
The government and cotton value chain representatives, meeting in Lusaka last week for a three-day UNCTAD workshop, said that cotton by-products represent an important means to improve incomes in the sector and help lessen the economy's dependence on copper, which on 5 December suffered its worst one-day price decline on global markets in almost three years.
Zambia, Africa's second-largest producer of the commodity after the Democratic Republic of Congo, has watched its economy rise and fall with the highs and lows of the volatile international price for copper, which accounts for a massive 70% of the country's exports.
During the commodities boom of the 2000s, with global demand high for the non-ferrous metal, the landlocked Southern African nation sped along at an average annual growth rate of more than 6%. But in 2014, copper prices plunged and the economy stalled.
Since then economic growth has averaged just under 3% - a hair below the country's annual population growth. This means that Zambia's per capita growth last year was actually negative (-0.1%), which is devastating news for the population, in particular the two-thirds that live in poverty.
Cotton growers in Zambia
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Promoting cotton by-products in Eastern and Southern Africa
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UNCTAD's work on Commodities and Development
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So the government has resolved to diversify Zambia's economy by prioritizing agriculture - including cotton by-products - a labour-intensive sector that could provide employment in the country's rural areas, where poverty is even more rampant.
"The cotton value chain offers a number of advantages such as the vast potential to spur economic diversification and offer opportunities for promoting value addition and employment," John Mulongoti, Acting Permanent Secretary of Zambia's Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry, said at the workshop.
"It is the desire of the Ministry to see small-scale farmers, spinners, weavers and garment makers effectively utilize opportunities offered in this sector for better incomes and livelihoods," Mr. Mulongoti said. "The cotton value chain presents a low-hanging fruit that can enhance the creation of wealth and employment."
The adage "One man's trash is another man's treasure" could describe the growing demand for cotton by-products, such as the stalks of the plant, which are currently burnt in the field, or the waste fibres from the ginning process.
Everything from ice-cream to wall paper
"Cotton is the most important crop in Zambia -- more important than even maize," Aubrey Chibumba, representing the country's Crushers and Edible Oil Refiners Association, said in reference to the country's main staple crop, which in the past has benefitted from favorable government policies, such as a floor price and a comprehensive package of subsidies for inputs like fertilizer.
"We can use every part of the cotton plant," Mr. Chibumba said.
Fuzzy seed, for example, can be pressed into cottonseed oil, which is used for cooking or making cosmetics and soap. Linters can be processed into sanitary pads, medical supplies and polishing cloths. And cotton stalks can be used to make everything from paper, to biomass fuel, to compost.
According to a cotton industry website, "by-products are in everything from ice cream to wall paper, from hot dog casings to baseballs - not to mention lots of things we use at home, like cotton swabs, wipes, and even disposable diapers."
Newfound interest in cotton by-products is good news for the more than 250,000 small-scale farmers and the million or so family members - about 8% of the population - whose well-being depends directly on growing the soft, white fibre, which has seen its prices on international markets sag in the last three years.
This is especially true for cotton lint, which faces stiff competition from man-made fibers, and the price-dampening effect of the billions of dollars in support that main cotton-producing countries pay to their farmers.
As a result, cotton production in Zambia has remained volatile in the two decades since the sector was liberalized in the 1990s, reaching a modern low of 37,000 metric tonnes (MT) in 2011, before spiking to a record high of 275,000 MT in 2012. The following years, annual production averaged around 100,000 MT but fell to just over 55,000 MT in the 2016-17 growing season.
Likewise, cotton's importance in the national economy has dropped from its 2012 peak of 1.45% of GDP (US$309 million) to just 0.33% ($US65 million) in 2016.
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