Restoration 
Plantations and tree crop commodities 
Enhanced nutrition and food security 
Biodiversity, safeguarding and conservation 
Nationally determined contributions 
Bioenergy and biomaterials 
Blue carbon and peatlands 
Climate change adaptation 
Landscape governance 
Gender 
Silvopastoral systems 
Market-based agroforestry-forestry 
Farm-forest policy interface 
Agroecology 
Livelihood trajectory modelling and assessment 
Inclusive finance and business models 
Innovating finance for sustainable landscapes 
Public and private commitments to zero deforestation 
Orphan tree crops 
Effectiveness of approaches to sustainable supply 
Quality of FTA research for development 
Sentinel landscapes 
Foresight 
Seeds and seedlings delivery systems 
Smallholder tree-crop commodities 
Cotton production in Zambia and Zimbabwe plays a key role in the countries’ agricultural sector and in the lives of millions of farmers who depend on it as a cash crop. Yet, in both countries, cotton production is at one of its lowest levels in recent years. One dominant cause for declining production is informal trading, manifested in side-trading, that circumvents the dominant institutional model of contract farming.
Through a three-year research collaboration between IAPRI (Indaba Agricultural Policy and Research Institute), AEPRIC (Agricultural Economics, Policy Research and Information Centre) and IIED, we examined the informal cotton trade and its impacts on the economic, social and environmental performance of the cotton sectors in Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Our findings illustrate the drivers and consequences of side-trading, including the short term positive impacts on livelihoods and longer term negative impacts of declining crop quality, yields and soil fertility. We show that regulatory frameworks around contract farming have struggled to deal with growing market competition, over-capacity and side-trading. At the same time, farmers are becoming increasingly distrustful of sector institutions and ginning companies. We conclude by presenting two options for institutional reform which would reverse this trend, minimise informality and bring the cotton sector back from the verge of collapse.
Through a three-year research collaboration between IAPRI (Indaba Agricultural Policy and Research Institute), AEPRIC (Agricultural Economics, Policy Research and Information Centre) and IIED, we examined the informal cotton trade and its impacts on the economic, social and environmental performance of the cotton sectors in Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Our findings illustrate the drivers and consequences of side-trading, including the short term positive impacts on livelihoods and longer term negative impacts of declining crop quality, yields and soil fertility. We show that regulatory frameworks around contract farming have struggled to deal with growing market competition, over-capacity and side-trading. At the same time, farmers are becoming increasingly distrustful of sector institutions and ginning companies. We conclude by presenting two options for institutional reform which would reverse this trend, minimise informality and bring the cotton sector back from the verge of collapse.
Authors:
Kabwe, S.; Mutambara, J.; Mujeyi, K.; Blackmore, E.; Vorley, B.; Xiaoxue, W.
Subjects:
farming, governance, trade, cotton, farmers
Publication type:
Book-R, Publication
Year:
2018
