Organization and Performance of Cotton Sectors in Africa ... - infoDev

production fell further, to lows of 5,200 tons of seed cotton in Mozambique in1985 and 2,000 tons of lint in Uganda in 1987.In both Tanzania and Zambia, government mismanagement of the cottonsector led to mounting debt and eventually to delayed payments to farmers.However, the impact on production was nowhere near as disastrous as inUganda or Mozambique. In Zambia, sector development was the responsibilityof the parastatal Lintco from 1977 onward. Annual production rose fromaround 3,000 tons during 1974–76 to a peak of over 60,000 tons in 1988, thentrended down to 30,000 tons by 1994. Lintco debts also increased to the pointwhere the government decided to privatize it.Cooperative unions were reinstated in Tanzania in 1984 as part of an economywidereform. Cotton production, which had declined steadily under TanzaniaCotton Authority management, began to recover, and reached record levels in1991 and 1992. Production during the latter year was over 300,000 tons of seedcotton, a level that would not be reached again until 2004. The cooperative systemdelivered some credit to farmers and, until at least the late 1980s, Tanzaniamaintained a reputation for good quality lint. However, the inefficient restoredcooperative unions required increasing financial assistance from the centralgovernment (mostly as guaranteed loans from government banks, despite nonrepaymentof previous loans because of trading losses). As mismanagementand shortages of funds caused cooperative unions to take quality less seriously,Tanzania’s reputation for lint quality began to decline (before the impacts ofliberalization).The good performance of Zimbabwe’s cotton sector during this periodstands in contrast to that of the other ESA countries in the study. Productionexpansion during the 1960s was founded on two research breakthroughs: theintroduction of the high-yielding Albar 637 seed variety in 1959–60 and effectivechemical control of red bollworm. Production levels were maintained duringthe 1970s despite the escalating liberation war. Half of the governing board ofthe Agricultural Marketing Authority (AMA)—set up in 1967 to coordinate theactivities of the Cotton Marketing Board (CMB) and other major parastatals—was made up of representatives from the Rhodesian National Farmers’ Union.In 1976, the AMA began to announce generous guaranteed minimum cottonprices before planting.Following independence in 1980, activities of the CMB were reoriented towardmeeting the needs of new, smallholder cotton producers in so-called communalareas. The number of buying posts in such areas was greatly increased and effortswere made to provide smallholder farmers with extension advice, while new seedvarieties suited to production conditions in communal areas were developed. Inaddition, expansion of smallholder cotton production was supported by loansfrom the parastatal Agricultural Finance Corporation. Nevertheless, commercialfarmers still accounted for 60 percent of national production in 1988.Commercial farmers in Zimbabwe began to exit cotton for more profitablealternatives in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The CMB responded in 199240 GERGELY AND POULTON