Cotton Production

During the 2008/09 marketing season, cotton output rose to 368,697 tons of seed cotton from 200,664 tons of seed cotton produced during the 2007/08 season i.e 84 percent increase.

The rise in output is largely being attributed to prevalence of good weather throughout the growing period; good producer prices paid to farmers during the preceding season of between shillings 400 and 540 per kilogram of seed cotton and the availability of adequate supplies of insecticides.

Table 1. Seed Cotton Production (Tons) from 2006/07 to 2008/09 season

Cotton Buying and Marketing

The 2008/09 buying season was officially inaugurated at Lyelembo village in Iramba district. A total of 46 companies were licensed to procure seed cotton as compared to 36 companies during the 2007/08 marketing season. A total of 8,241 buying posts were certified.

The marketing season started at a time when the cotton world market prices were at their highest point of around 90 US$ cents per pound CIF-Europe. Farmers enjoyed the benefit of a good market and the producer price ranged between shillings 400 and 540 per kilogram of seed cotton.

Nevertheless, by December 2008 prices had declined to 45 cents FOT and to below this level during the first quarter of 2009 as a result of the unfolding economic m and financial crises. Thus, cotton farmers were not directly affected by the crises as the ownership of % the crop had already been transferred to ginners most of whom went on to sustain heavy losses.

Cotton Ginning

A total of 43 ginneries were inspected and permitted to operate during the season comparedto 46 ginneries licensed in preceding season. Table No. 2 provides a summary of the performance of the ginneries during the season under review.

Cotton Inputs Supply

(i)Seeds

A total of 17,085 tons of fuzzy seeds were distributed to farmers for planting during the 2008/09 farming season. The acreage put under cotton declined to 403,414 hectares when compared to 474,080 m hectares cultivated during 2007/08 farming season.

(ii) Insecticides

The Cotton Development Trust Fund imported 1,814,000 acre packs of water based insecticides 1,140,858 of which were distributed to farmers by the ginners. However, following the disbandment of the pass books, farmers only managed to buy 556,772 acre packs on cash basis due to lack of purchasing power.

Table 3. Quantity of insecticides supplied during 2008/09farming season

Cotton Research

Cotton related research at Ilonga and Ukiriguru Research stations continued with the overall objectives of increasing the productivity and profitability of cotton farming through the development of new varieties and the release of appropriate production technologies.

During the 2008/09 farming season, the cotton research programme carried out a number of activities covering different aspects of research namely variety development; evaluation of different soil fertility management practices; weed, insect and disease control measures as well as multiplication of breeder seed.

A total of Tzs 522,781,946 was made available for cotton research activities from the following sources:-

Table 4. Cotton research funding in 2008/09

Annual Report for the year ended 30th June 2009

Some Research Outputs

Two new cotton varieties recommended by Ukiriguru namely; UK08 and UKM08 were finally passed by the National Variety Release Committee and will soon be put under multiplication under a Memorandum of Understanding to be signed between TCB and Quton Company of Zimbabwe.

Cotton Classification

Cotton classification is aimed at determining the quality parameters of the fibre prior to its sale. Classification results for the year 2008/09 indicate that 69% of the cotton classed was of good grade (i.e GANY and above).

Table 5. Analysis of classing results

Cotton Classification Round Trials

Since 2006 and 2007 Tanzania Cotton Board has been participating in the Bremen Cotton Exchange and the International Cotton Advisory Committee Commercial Standardization of Instrument Testing of Cotton round trials respectively.

The Inter-laboratories round trials aim at checking laboratories for accuracy and precision of the results. Participation in these international cotton classification round trials has enabled the Board to globally compare the test results and hence improve service to its customers.

Commercial Standardization of Instrument Testing of Cotton (CSITC) Project

CSITC is a project funded by the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC), EU and in-kind contribution of participating Institutions. Tanzania Bureau of Standards is hosting a Regional Technical Centre (RTC).

The centre is a reference point on Instrument testing of cotton for Eastern and SouthernAfrica regions where laboratories from the participating countries will gauge their performance.

The project is aimed at improving the integrity of global cotton trade by establishing a reliable system of instrument cotton characterization adoptable by all cotton producing countries.

Ports and local Consumption

During 2008/09 season, Tanzania exported a total of 56,797 tons of lint valued at USD 82 million.

Annual Report for the year ended 30th June 2009    

compared to 36,441 tons worth USD 55 million which were exported in 2007/08. The major destinations of Tanzanian cotton lint continued to be India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Pakistan, China and Kenya.

Local consumption of lint was exceptionally higher than exports for the first time in history. During 2008/09, the 21 textile mills consumed a total of 66,600 tons of lint compared to 37,489 tons during the 2007/08 season. This was attributable to an increase in purchasing power for local mills in the wake | of economic and financial crises which led to plummeting in price of cotton lint.

Table 6. COTTON EXPORTS BY DESTINATION IN 2008/09

Cotton Extension Services

During 2008/09 farming season, the Board implemented a number of activities which were aimed at disseminating the best cotton farming practices to farmers as outlined here below:-

  Weekly ‘Pamba Yetu’ radio programs were aired on both Radio Tanzania and Radio Free Africa.
- Annual farming competitions were conducted in all cotton producing districts where 135 best

farmers were awarded various prizes including ox-weeders, bicycles, iron sheets and two power tillers for Zonal winners.

  Agro-chemical companies which supplied insecticides conducted training to farmers on proper usage of their products;

The Board participated in Nane Nane Agricultural Shows in Morogoro, Dodoma and Mwanza and emerged a winner in the category of Crop Boards.

Cotton and Textile Development Programme

This is a programme that is being funded by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation of United Kingdom through the Tanzania Gatsby Trust. The thrust of the programme is to increase cotton productivity % production and value addition. During the year under review, the programme implemented the following:-

Demonstration of conservation agriculture in 15 districts;   

Piloting of contract farming in Bunda and Musoma districts;

Preparation for introduction of textile related degrees at the University of Dar es Salaam where six (6) members of staff of the College of Engineering were sponsored to undertake Masters of Science degree in textile technology at the University of Manchester in UK;

Preparation for introduction of fashion design course at VETA where two (2) VETA members of staff were sponsored to undertake fashion design curriculum development at the University of Manchester.

Information and Communication Technology

During this period under review, the Board carried out redesigning of its website (http//:www.tancotton. co.tz or http//:www.cotton.or.tz) to keep abreast with the current development in information & communication technology (ICT) and to improve its image.

Apart from the above, the Board in collaboration with the cotton stakeholders has indulged in the development of online integrated cotton information system (OICIS) which will facilitate collection and transmission of data from all over the cotton growing areas to the data base at the Head Office through General Packet Radio Service (GPRS).

Further, the Board procured two new servers (HP Prolant ML 350 and Intel Xeon E5410 2.33) to ameliorate and maintain ICT infrastructure and systems.

With the expansion and increased investment in ICT infrastructure, plans were underway to recruit the professional to manage this area of activity.

Legal Matters

The Board in consultation with cotton stakeholders held two (2) consultative meetings that discussed recommendations to the amendments of the Cotton Industry Act, of 2001, which was first read in the June 2009 August House. Considered amendments of the Act included:-

- Inclusion of the contract farming;

- Redefining the Board’s functions;

- The mechanism for financing of the shared function; and  

- Controller and Auditor General being responsible for the auditing of the Board’s annual accounts as opposed to any reputable audit firm.

Personal Matters

As at 30^th June, 2009, the Board had a workforce of 60 employees, 58 being employed on permanent pensionable terms and 2 engaged on contracts.

However, during the period under review, two employees retired from the services of the Board after reaching compulsory retirement age and three were recruited to the vacant positions.

In order to keep the employees well informed in their fields of work, the Board financed short courses in Human Resources Solutions and Auditing the Public Sector in South Africa.

The foregone notwithstanding, the accounting and engineering staff continued to attend Continued Professional Education programs in their fields.

Management Structure

The Board falls under the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives. The overall control and direction of the Board’s activities is under the Board of Directors consisting of, for the year under review, nine members.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Board is the Director General who is the accounting officer for the day to day activities of the Board.

During the period under review, the Director General was assisted by two Heads of Directorates namely, Director of Regulatory Services and Director of Finance & Administration.

Apart from the two Directorates, there were two Advisors, the Legal Counsel and Internal Auditor. The Western Cotton Growing Area was manned by the Zonal Director.

However, TCB organisation structure provides for the Directorate of Cotton Development & Promotion Services, Planning Unit and Zonal Office for the Eastern Cotton Growing Area, the positions which the Board failed to fill due to financial constraints.