SANF 05 no 76
Cotton farmers from across Africa recently convened in Maputo, Mozambique, to join the global movement to stop agriculture policies that are depressing world cotton prices.
“Cotton is at the heart of our lives. Our families are entirely dependent on cotton,” said Alberto Malico, a cotton farmer from Mozambique’s northern province of Nampula.
“Over the years the price of cotton has continued to drop and we know why this is so. We demand a fair deal in the trading of cotton.”
Listening to Malico and others speaking about the cotton price crisis in Maputo were trade ministers, ambassadors, and economists from Mozambique and other cotton-producing countries from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region.
Graça Machel, former first lady of Mozambique, also attended and pledged to support the goals of the campaign.
“Farmers are within their right to call for fair trade and are seeking nothing short of trade justice. Political independence will never be a reality until Africans are economically free,” said Machel.
The event marked the start of a new regional campaign led by Oxfam America and its partners in Mozambique.
Research by Oxfam shows that the world oversupply of cotton is linked to government subsidies paid to farmers in Europe and the United States, which encourages large corporate producers to grow more cotton than the market is demanding.
There are thousands of farmers growing cotton in Mozambique, and as many as 25,000 labourers depending on the crop for their living.
In addition to pushing for changes in export subsidy policies for cotton growers in the US, Oxfam America is also helping farmers in cotton growing regions in Mozambique to make a better living and participate in policy decisions that affect their lives, such as the setting of cotton prices paid to growers in Mozambique.
“Oxfam America is developing a livelihoods intervention with its partners to search for and implement lasting solutions to the problems facing the cotton sector,” announced Oxfam America’s director for Southern Africa, Julio de Sousa at the launch event.
This support will include projects to organize grower associations to advocate for better prices and policies, as well as training for farmers to help improve the quality of their cotton and protect the environment.
François Traoré, a Burkinabé cotton grower and President of the African Cotton Producer Association, explained how the depressed prices for cotton are devastating 10 million growers in Africa. “The only life we know is that of growing cotton,” he said. “The sustained drop in the price of cotton is killing families right across Africa.”
In the 14-member SADC region, the four largest cotton-exporting countries are Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. About half of the SADC countries presently have commercial interest in cotton and 80 percent of the population in these countries consists of peasant farmers who rely primarily on agricultural production for their food security and economic livelihood.
Tanzania’s case exposes this vulnerability. At its peak, the cotton industry was Tanzania’s largest employer, with 14 textile and spinning mills employing nearly 35,000 people. Today, most of the factories have closed down, and its contribution to the national economy is declining.
Since the mid-1990s, the cotton price on the world market has fallen by 54 percent, threatening the very existence of cotton farming communities. According to Reneth Mano, a researcher, this situation is creating “beggars out of efficient farmers.”
“Africans will never be happy with aid,” he said at the campaign launch event. “All we are asking for is fair trade. African nations would earn more from trade than from the inflow of aid, if only the playing field was levelled.” (SARDC)
