
Wadyajena told a parliamentary committee workshop organised
by Cottco in Kariba that the company should avoid being used to drive a
political agenda in rural areas, but thrive to innovate in the interest of
farmers.
“Instead of trying to manipulate selection of candidates
for political parties, Cottco must be thinking of beneficiation. Instead of
watching and allowing politically-connected crooks to loot inputs, Cottco must
be participating in the building of communities,” he said.
The workshop, which saw two parliamentary committees — one
on Agriculture and the other on Indigenisation — met in the resort town was
aimed at equipping the lawmakers on new trends in the cotton industry as well
as advocate for support of white gold farmers.
“As Parliament, we have an interest in ensuring that there
is transparency and accountability in the use of public resources, as these
must only be deployed for the purposes authorised by the law,” Wadyajena said.
Some of the challenges crippling Cottco include
side-marketing and lack of resources, although government introduced the
presidential input scheme, which MPs said was being abused.
“We have recorded some saddening and shocking cases of
serious abuse of State-funded programmes that are meant to empower and uplift
poor farmers for example, the presidential input scheme.
“Let me hasten to say, the presidential input scheme is a
very a noble idea and it has helped to revive the cotton industry, which was
once on the brink of collapse. However, we are seeing it being threatened by
side-marketing and looting of inputs,” Wadyajena said.
“As Cottco, you should not stand by and let the
presidential input scheme get misused and manipulated. All households must
receive inputs regardless of political affiliation. Crucially, we all have to
put on our thinking caps and come together to call out and stop them cheaters
that ruin such important and valuable programmes.”
In response, Cottco acting managing director Pious Manamike
said they were currently embarking on a trial run of a new high-yielding hybrid
cotton seed. Newsday
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