Following increased attention to the cotton sector in Uganda, the Cotton Development Organisation's (CDO) officials responded to questions.
They are Jolly Sabune, the managing director; Hilary Magunda, the board secretary; Damalie Lubwama, an agronomist and Hans Muzoora, the principal market information and monitoring officer.
Below are excerpts:
QUESTION: Did farmers receive seed that had less than 20% germination in the past season?
Lubwama: CDO has been providing planting seed to farmers since its inception in 1994. The seed provided for planting annually has been tested by the National Seed Certification Services in Kawanda and only seed that had a minimum germination rate of 75% during dry harvesting seasons and 70% during wet harvesting seasons was distributed to farmers.
Prior to 2002/03, the seed was multiplied by farmers in Kazinga Channel (western) region. The ginners would then buy the crop and gin it. CDO would purchase the seed from them, treat and package it and give it back to all the ginners to distribute to farmers in their catchment areas.
CDO did the same last during the 2007/08 season. However, the quality of seed received from ginners especially in the eastern and northern parts was generally low because of buying and storing wet cotton. But CDO put in place major efforts to ensure the seed supplied to farmers had a minimum germination rate of 70%.
Does the Government spend on untested seed while farmers lose?
Sabune: Since 2002/03, the Government has been funding provision of planting seed to farmers.
Cotton is a strategic crop grown as a cash crop in over two thirds of the country and has contributed to household incomes greatly. The Government's investment in cotton has benefited the farmers and the economy.
Why did the private sector farmer support programme, which provided farmers with extension services and inputs, collapse? Why is Uganda producing the lowest amount of cotton in a decade, likely to be less than 60,000 bales from a recent high of 254,000 bales?
Sabune and Magunda: Cotton production drastically declined during 2007/08 mainly due to lack of farmers' mobilisation and training, pest control and en-mass introduction of organic cotton without adequate training or preparation of the farmers.
The sum total of all the above is a 63% drop in production from 134,000 bales in 2006/07 to an estimate of 50,000 bales for 2007/08.
Are there no more queues of buyers taking up residence in Kampala in December to sign contracts for Ugandan cotton?
Muzoora: In the past, almost all ginners were engaged in ginning only and sold the lint to international cotton merchants.
However, today, most merchants have joined ginning and are ginning over 70% of the crop.
But there are some ginneries still being operated by non-merchants (co-operatives and private sector), who control less than 40% of the crop and also sell to the merchants. These merchants also pre-finance other private sector ginners and have made it difficult for other international buyers to penetrate the market for raw Ugandan cotton.
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