Cotton from Nigeria is being sold at 70 percent less in the international market, than the price of the same product from other countries such as Burkina Faso, China and India, on account of the fact that Nigeria does not produce Biotechnology (BT) cotton.
The inability of the Nigerian farmers to produce BT Cotton is as a result of the non-passage of the bio-safety bill which would allow producers to purchase and cultivate Biotechnology (BT) cotton.
BT cotton which is significantly cheaper to produce, commands higher prices in the international market. Hamma Ali Kwajaffa, president, National Cotton Association of Nigeria (NACOTAN) said the bio-safety law will ensure that all the parameters needed for farmers to utilise Biotechnology (BT) cotton would be put in place.
Speaking at the recently concluded Cotton Value Chain stakeholders’ forum held in Abuja, Kwajaffa said the use of BT cotton would increase thequality and quantity of cotton output in Nigeria, reduce the spraying of insecticides and thereby reduce cost of production and the harm that pesticides have on farmers’ health.
He further said, “Currently in Nigeria, farmers get less than one ton per hectare of cotton planted, while countries that have adopted BT cotton get as much as four tons per hectare.”
Explaining further, Kwajaffa said Nigeria’s cotton is currently discounted in the international market and sold for an equivalent of N80,000 per ton, whereas the same measure of BT cotton from other countries goes for N200,000 to N300,000.
The participants at the forum also expressed concern that farmers hardly breakeven as a result of the poor prices of Nigeria’s cotton. Concerns raised also included the fact that clothes from China and other countries made with BT cotton are flooding Nigeria’s market, while the country’s lawmakers dilly-dally over the passage of the bio-safety bill that will allow the legitimate cultivation of BT cotton by farmers, increase their incomes and improve their standard of living.
Salman Abdullahi, president of the Ginners’ Association, who is also a farmer, said there are over 42 ginneries in the country and each ginnery has a minimum of 9,000 farmers supplying it but that each ginnery is still not working at full capacity.
Abdullahi said the farmers have been receiving support from the Federal Government in form of inputs but that the poor productivity of the cotton farms is a disincentive for young people taking up cotton farming.
He further said, “I have 750 hectares of farmland, but I am unable to put up to 100 hectares under production. Young people in the rural areas prefer to move into urban centres.
“Yet we have machineries, we have invested over N1 billion in the ginneries but without adequate cotton, where are we?”
