Regional Markets

3 Cases
Impact of the intervention
Pro-poor
The cotton sector in Zimbabwe is central to the country’s efforts to reduce poverty in
rural areas. However, an interlocked market, where buyers through contract farming
control both input and output prices, keeps Zimbabwean cotton farmers in poverty. The
answer was a consolidated, multipronged approach: facilitating collective action by cotton
farmers from all over the country (through the investment groups and FACHIG),
supporting the development of sustainable
agricultural and business practices
through capacity building efforts and the
pilot warehouse, addressing gender inequalities,
and other initiatives. With these combined
efforts, smallholders have been able to
almost double the price for their cotton from
the 2009-2010 season. The introduction
of the pilot ginnery is particularly interesting,
because it seeks to move farmers up the
value chain towards becoming processors in
their own right.
We are making losses. The exploitation
is just too much. They [the government]
should advise us whether to plant cotton
or not, based on indications from international
buyers. My children are suffering. I
force them to wake up every morning, work
the whole day in the fields, sweating and
working on empty stomachs. At the end of
season, I have nothing to give them to compensate
for their sweat.
Mr. Lameck Mahlayeya (Chairperson,
Manicaland Cotton Growers Association)
Gender
Approximately 60% of smallholder cotton farmers are women, who usually perform
traditionally assigned roles. Women and youth produce and harvest the crop, but
when it comes to marketing, men are the main actors. Hence, men are in control of
the income received from cotton production. Through the Gender Action Learning
System (GALS) the project raises the awareness among the participating communities
about these problems. Also through trainings and support actions, it seeks to empower
women farmers to enhance their position in the value chain. Initially, when the farmers
formed FACHIG, they recognised the need to secure a fair representation of women
cotton farmers in the association.The results are evident in the numbers. In order to
overcome the weak position of women smallholders, the project explicitly focused on
enhancing their capacity (in the trainings women outnumber men two to one). Also in
the IGs the women members dominate—nationwide FACHIG has 7,635 women and
3,088 male members.
Food security
The impact of the value chain initiative is aimed at improving the yields of small scale
cotton producers and enhancing their bargaining power on the national marketplace
(through warehouse receipt schemes and farmers organisations). The ultimate goal is to
produce more cotton per hectare and to sell it at fair prices. Improving incomes from the
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