By Scoop Reporter in Mazabuka
GOVERNMENT has assured cotton farmers that it is working around the clock to ensure the textile industry is revamped.
It says this is the only way to revamp the cotton industry and ensure farmers benefit from cotton through value addition.
Mazabuka District Commissioner Oliver Mulombwa says Government has placed agriculture value addition on it top developmental agenda.
Mr. Mulombwa was speaking at the first ever World Cotton Day celebrations held at the Cotton Development Centre in Mazabuka, this Morning.
He says it is for this reason that Government will recruit 500 extension officers to ensure services are brought closer to the people and has encouraged farmers to invest more in crop production because its benefits in the value chain are immense.
Meanwhile cotton producers have called for harmonised extension services in the cotton production to increase yields for small scale farmers.
Cotton Development Trust Director Mbewe says there is need for latest technology in the cotton industry to ensure efficiency and improve the yields.
And speaking earlier, Cotton Association of Zambia (CAZ) Executive Director John Ngwenyama said the sleeping textile sector is killing the cotton industry and that the only way to revamp the cotton industry and contribute to the economy is through revamping the textile industry.
And International Trade Centre National Coordinator Dafulin Kaonga encouraged Government to open the textiles industry as it will help localise jobs.
World Cotton Day was born in 2019, when four cotton producers in sub-Saharan Africa– Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali, known as the Cotton Four, proposed to the World Trade Organization to have a World Cotton Day celebration in October
The United Nations has officially recognized the World Cotton Day, as a great opportunity that creates awareness of the need for market access for cotton and cotton-related products from least developed countries, fosters sustainable trade policies, and enables developing countries to benefit more from every step of the cotton value chain.
We want mulungushi textiles to be opened as well. Since cotton industry is promising now.