Progress in organic cotton – one farmer’s experience

Mrs Wingwiri is a veteran of organic cotton growing in Zimbabwe’s Zambezi valley in the area know as Lower Guruve. She first became interested during the visit sponsored by the (then) Pesticides Trust in late 1995. The possibilities of the organic system were presented, at the request of the Lower Guruve Development Association (LGDA). Dorothy Myers reports on Mrs Wingwiri’s progress.

Mrs Wingwiri continues to produce and sell her organic cotton, and other crops. Photo: Dorothy Myers

Cotton production is central to the domestic economy of people who have been resettled in the Zambezi valley, with many people totally dependent on it for income. Production methods relied on synthetic chemical fertilisers and pesticides, until 1995 when organic experiments started. The project expanded with the support of an international company which bought the cotton at a premium and ginned it. A local company then bought the fibre. In spite of major setbacks, not least the political insecurity, a recent survey shows that 31 farmers are still farming organically. Mrs Wingwiri was keen to avoid the use of pesticides, having noticed that she developed body pains after spraying. She was also interested in reducing the costs of pesticide inputs on her cotton crop. In the 1995/6 season, Mrs Wingwiri started experimenting with cotton and groundnuts. In 1997 she participated in the Farmer Field Worker (FFW) organic training organised by the African Farmers’ Organic Research and Training (AfFOResT) in Harare. She also attended the PAN-Africa Organic Cotton Workshop in Senegal to present her initial experience (see Organic Cotton: from field to final product(1)) and to learn from the experiences of those in other countries. She then felt confident enough to take the important step of converting all her 14 acres (5.7 hectares) to organic production. The current season is her third without pesticides.
    Soil fertility in Mrs Wingwiri’s organic farm is based on the rotation groundnut-maize-cotton whereas before conversion it was maize-cotton-maize. Intercropping is also important with as many as 10 different crops grown on her land (see Table 1).
    Leaves and roots of local plants are used for pest control as necessary including mutupatupa (Tephrosia vogeli), mororo or custard apple (the roots can be used as an insecticidal spray) and kapunganyunyu or wild basil (this is a repellent plant). Mrs Wingwiri and her two sons work the land themselves but also need to hire in extra help paid for in cash and in kind. She also has to pay for seeds and hires a tractor as needed. Last season, Mrs Wingwiri harvested 630 kg seed cotton from her 3 acres (yield 500 kg/ha.), around half a tonne of groundnuts, one tonne of maize – all organically produced. In 2000, she expected to harvest three tonnes of maize, half a tonne of groundnuts and 1,200 kg seed cotton. In the event, the seed cotton harvest was rather lower than she hoped at 375 kg from 2 acres (0.8 hectares) because the crop was planted late due to deaths in the family and the rains ceased before the cotton bolls could ripen. Cotton must be planted before January for it to yield well. 
    Following the Farmer Field Worker training, Mrs Wingwiri established a farmer group and started to pass on to them the skills and knowledge she had acquired through her training. All the farmers are women except for one young man, who tend to be more interested in organic agriculture because it does not require big investments in chemical inputs. The group has expanded to the point where it had to be split into two. Mrs Wingwiri, now a Senior FFW, meets with her colleagues monthly to discuss progress within their group.

Reference
1. Dorothy Myers, Organic Cotton: from field to final product, PAN UK, 1997.

[This article first appeared in Pesticides News No.49, September 2000, p8]