BINGU WAS TOO HARD ON COTTON BUYERS

BINGU WAS TOO HARD ON COTTON BUYERS BY ANANIYA ALICK PONJE President Bingu wa Mutharika has always been known as a man who tolerates no rubbish. He is a realist. He does not want things to be done in halves. And he has swaying dreams which are slowly and steadily driving this poverty-stricken country towards prosperity. He believes that since countries like China were as poor as Malawi at some point, then Malawi as well can become as rich as China is now. He believes Malawi can do it. He believes there is no such big hurdle which can prevent our cities from having soaring skyscrapers and numerous flyovers. Mutharika looks ahead with the ultimate confidence. He is an economist by profession and he knows how best to handle our economy. He teaches us to fish, not to rely on handouts like his predecessor used to do. Such is a president whose eyes of the mind look further than physical eyes. Apparently, he does not sleep, thinking of formulating ways which can help him ultimately realize his dream; a dream for all Malawians. Mutharika is also quite aware of how smallholder farmers work with their noses to the grindstone on their farms just to fight to live another day. He is mindful of the fact that these farmers have been downtrodden for so long and hopes it should have been high time they started reaping what they deserve. Bingu, who has recently been crowned as Mchikumbe Number One knows that development of a country begins at household level. He knows that people need to live contented lives so that they work industriously towards the development of their lives which will result into the development of the country as a whole. In his pursuit to make certain smallholder farmers are always satisfied so that they continue with their trade, Mutharika has always set minimum prices for cash crops like tobacco and cotton. And he set K75 to be the minimum price for cotton, a thing which did not go down well with most cotton buyers who decided not to buy the crop. It was a good directive from the president but it has come up with contradictory results, yielding both success and failure and the victim now appears to be the poor farmer. Now when you travel down the Lower Shire, the area where cotton is mostly grown, you will find that most cotton fields are not yet cleared because farmers have been demoralized. Mutharika should not have set such a minimum price in this time of economic crisis where every trader is cautious enough not to make losses. He should have left the cotton buyers and the farmers’ representatives to reach a compromise. But the president’s order resulted in the two having no chance to come to a roundtable. After all, it was a presidential directive and who would rebut it. The ironic thing is that cotton continues being bought and at the same cheap prices of K45 per kg and even below. Poor farmers who have nothing in their homes sell their crop at the same cheaper prices because they cannot do otherwise. It has been reported that in some areas, the buyers buy the crop at the ‘presidential price’ during the day only to lower it in the evening. So pathetic! And farmers are complaining that some cotton buyers are playing a trick. When the president made the directive the company sent some of its people to the cotton growing areas where they still buy the crop at as low as K35 per kg. And when enough cotton was bought, the buyer agreed with the president’s directive that they would buy the crop at a minimum price of K75 per kg. They did this only to find a way of transporting the crop which they bought at K35 per kg. Still some farmers have their cotton but there is no one to buy it because some buyers have failed to meet the president’s demand. These are buyers who would not want to play any trick and they have told farmers to keep their crop so that it may be bought later, perhaps when the economic crisis is over. Bingu should have let the buyers and the farmers discuss the whole issue and reach a compromise. It is true that farmers are being shortchanged but it is also being unrealistic to expect buyers to buy crops at prices which would bring them losses. The president just got it wrong. Much as it is his responsibility to protect farmers from exploitation, there are as well some other circumstances that need not to be passed over. At least there should have been an alternative for farmers in a situation where cotton buyers fail to buy the crop. Perhaps government should have formulated means of helping the poor farmer.