Summary of Production Trends, Cotton Research Status and
Cotton IPM Experience in Mozambique
Antonio Chamuene*1, Norberto Mahalambe *2, Osvaldo Catine*2
*1
Agricultural Research Institute of Mozambique, www.iiam.gov.mz, P.O.Box 3658Maputo, Mozambique
*2
Mozambique Institute for Cotton, , www.iam.gov.mz, , P.O.Box 806 Maputo, Mozambique
1. Introduction
Mozambique is not a big cotton producer country, but cotton assumes a great importance among
small farmers in rural areas. Cotton also is an important crop for more than 300.000 small scale
families, and about 96% of cotton seed come from small scale farm and 3,7% from farmer
association and 0.3% form private sector and it counts number 6 on the export rank of all export
products. In addition, 10 professional companies have cotton as their core business and create
over 20.000 employments throughout it value chain, namely seasonal and permanent workers.
Cotton in Mozambique remains an important crop in many regions, where it’s produced on a
joint venture basis and more than 200,000 poor rural households rely on cotton as their primary
and often only cash crop. The companies’ engagements are twofold. On the one hand they
supply all inputs necessary to the breeding such as seeds, insecticides, etc and provide technical
assistance to all small farmers wishing to produce cotton. On the other hand each company
guaranties to purchase the entire production obtained by their farmers, who in turn have the
obligation to sell it exclusively to the company. The insecticide provided to farmers is deducted
from their sale incomes.
The Government of Mozambique is given highest priority to cotton promotion in all over the
country. We as cotton drivers are implementing a number of projects for research and
production, like crop diversification, best practices trough integrated pest and production
management (IPPM), innovation by using cattle for power and so on.
2. Summary of Cotton Production Statistics/Trends
1
Cotton ranks second in merchandise exports Small-scale farmers comprise 99 percent of all rural
households in Mozambique and provide 95 percent of agricultural gross domestic product, where
the country’s rural economy is heavily reliant on the cotton subsector. It is the main income
earner for some 300,000 rural households and generates about 20.000 of jobs. The subsector
generates nearly 40 million USD in agriculture exports per year.
The yield of this cash crop is particularly low in the whole country. When compared with West
African cotton producing countries, the yield rates of Mozambican cotton farmers are about 40
percent lower. The average yield in Mozambique is 500kg/ha of seed cotton, bellow the average
of other African countries producing about 1,100 Kg/ha of seed cotton. The low yield level is
mostly due to late sowing and insufficient protection against insects and weeds, which adds to
the problem of small-sized fields and inadequate cultural practices. Since the labour in the family
is limited, the cotton is relegated to a second plan and priority is given to maize fields. In spite of
this understandable priority, many families still don’t have enough stock food for the whole year.
They have different ways to prevent from hunger, the main one being to exchange with other
farmers their labour force against food.
Other production constraint of cotton production in the Country is the new emergence alternative
cash crop for cotton growers. Then, the fall of the cotton price in international markets leads to a
reduction of the small producers’ incomes, which progressively disengage of the traditional cash
crop, sometimes in favour of alternative crops such as tobacco and sesame.
Production levels have bounced back though and are now about 120,000 Mtons/year. The yet
untapped potential, however, is 300,000-400,000 Mtons/year (Fig. 1).
2
160
2007/08
69.505 Tons
2005/06
= 122. 287 T ons
140
120
( 1000 Tons)
100
80
60
40
1985/85
+ Baixa = 5.200
20
( A NO S )
2009
2007
2005
2003
2001
1999
1997
1995
1993
1991
1989
1987
1985
1983
1981
1979
1977
1975
1973
1971
1969
1967
1965
1963
1961
1959
1957
1955
1953
1951
1949
1947
1945
1943
1941
1939
1937
1935
1933
1931
0
Independência Nacional
Fig.1: Production of seed cotton from 1931 to 2007 year (IAM, 2009)
While the cotton industry is far from having reached its full potential, it survived the war which
drastically reduced the number gins from 27 before civil war to 11 operational at the moment.
Also the cotton production levels have bounced back. For example, the Dunavant gin operates
now about 120,000 Mtons/year, but the yet untapped potential, however, is 300,000-400,000
Mtons/year.
Besides the low volume of cotton gathered, the company faces another serious problem, namely
the low quality of the cotton that is produced by the small farmers. They just don’t apply the
recommendations for quality-related practices such as the two-phased picking, the separation in
two classes and adequate storage. In their view the extra effort required to follow these
recommendations isn’t compensated.
The Mozambican government grants exclusive concession areas to cotton processing companies
and sets a minimum price which they must pay to producers. Companies should invest on more
effective trainings of its technical assistant staff. In order to overcome the cotton production
crisis in Mozambique, the government along with the Mozambique Institute of Cotton
companies investing on research to improve cotton profitability and consequently the living
standards of farmer families.
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3. Cotton Research Status
Research is the Government-owned established in Northern part of the Country, where is located
the Centre for Cotton Research and Seed Multiplication. The Cotton research is still conventional
and currently its program has developed research projects for components of plant breeding,
plant protection and agronomy.
3.1 Plant Breeding
Germplasm renovation and development of improved varieties in compliance to national
legislation and adapted to specific agro-ecological regions are being optimized. Maintain genetic
purity, yield potentials and fiber qualities through annual renovation of the existing varieties and
their multiplication for the production of foundation seeds is going on. The testing for
adaptability of cotton varieties/lines (introduced and local) under Mozambican farming
conditions is going on:
•
Testing 21 varieties/lines;
•
Testing material from CIRAD;
•
Breeding for production of new varieties;
•
The most varieties in Mozambique is about 6: CA 324 (47%), REMU- 40 (34%), and
other 4 (19%) include STAM-42, ISA-205, Chureza and Albar SZ-9314.
There have no a transgenic cotton in the country (the low for use of transgenic plant was
approved in 2007).
3.2 Plant Protection
The output of this component is to develop technical packages for use in cotton cultivation that
are more environmentally friendly than existing purely chemical methods of pest and disease
control. Development of the scouting based spray program for appropriate pesticide application
and use of biological control agent is tested in main cotton growing regions, as sculling up of the
promising results from on-station trials. Effect of cotton multiple cropping systems is being
evaluated for contribution of natural enemies for cotton pest management strategies. On-station
and on-farm trials on use of insecticide-treated fuzzed seeds are being evaluated. The assessment
4
of economic profitability and environmental impact of the use of insecticide-treated fuzzed seeds
is being tested, including the feasibility of the use of technological cotton seed. Economic impact
of weed control was tested between hoe hand and herbicide application; the results showed that
the used pre-emergence herbicide can save 3 times weeding and can save about 35% of labour
compare with traditional hoe hand weeding.
3.3 Agronomy
To promote the use of composted biomass and chipped (fragmented) cotton plant residues as a
soil additive in heavily eroded soils. Multching for water and soil conservation, plant density
and fertilizer trials are being conducted. The plant density trial is conducted for different soil
types. In generally, the main activities of agronomy components are addressed to:
•
Identify the most adequate agronomic package for each variety and zone to maximize
yield potentials under the diverse environmental conditions;
•
Develop and improve the cotton production practices and strengthen the ties between
research and extension to better transfer knowledge and technology to farmers, through
the recommended production package;
•
Develop extension models for expansion and dissemination of useful cotton technology
packages;
•
Develop conservation practices for integrated soil nutrient management (mulching,
intercropping with legume crops, chipping and incorporation of crop residues).
In general, the expected outputs of the cotton research include new and updated information on:
•
The development of improved cotton germplasm (for improved drought stress/tolerance,
Jassid tolerance and enhanced fiber quality/yield);
•
Cotton production practices based on integrated pest and production management (insect
and disease control, weed control, nutrient management and cultural practices);
•
Cotton fiber (evaluation, quality, and use);
•
And cotton economics (cotton production efficiency, gin profitability).
3.4 Perspective for Optimization of Cotton Research
5
The research programme can only be effective through a rigorous optimization of use of limited
human resources in a way which will maximize the impact of applied research. To have any
significant impact it is of vital importance that all of the components of a productive applied
research and technology transfer system become more integrated. The focus must be addressed
to:
•
Agro-climatic zoning to guide identification of suitable locations for field trials and
introduction of cropping system;
•
Germplasm renovation and development of improved varieties in compliance to national
legislation and adapted to specific agro-ecological regions;
•
Formulation of appropriate technical packages using proven and emerging technologies
(soil fertility, rotations, soil amelioration and IPPM);
•
Technical transfer and appropriate delivery of packages;
•
Economic evaluation of profitability and environmental impact;
•
Information exchange, policy analysis and formulation of action plans between target
groups, beneficiaries and stakeholders;
•
Institutional strengthening and training
This can improve standards of output and delivery to achieve quantifiable beneficial impacts for
those who manage the farm of Mozambique.
4. Cotton IPM in Mozambique
Cotton small scale farmers face several production constraints. Pests are amongst the one of
them and cause up to 70% yield loss. The most important cotton insect pests in Mozambique are
the Empoasca fascialis, Aphis gossypii, Helicoverpa spp., Diparopsis castanea, Earias insulina,
Dystercus spp. and Pectinophora gossypiella. Pesticides are the main pest control method used,
in generally, based on a calendar spraying with 2 weeks interval. The calendar spraying can lead
to repeated pesticide application and consequently to health and environmental problems and
uneconomic cotton production. On other hand, cotton is being grown as a monoculture without
crop rotation. In long term the monoculture cropping system can cause soil degradation and
provide concentrated resources for pests.
Pest management strategies have shown good results in on-station trials in Mozambique. The
strip intercropping of cotton with a trap crop can provide a biological diversity, which keeps the
6
insect population density in equilibrium and facilitate the natural control of the pest. The cotton
strip intercropping associated with the chemical pest control based on economic threshold can be
an alternative method, witch stimulate sustainable crop production for smallholder farmers. This
means that farmers by intercropping cotton with a food crop, can produce, in the same area, the
same amount of cotton plus an extra amount of a food crop and can economize the labour. And
the pest incidence tended to be lower in intercropped cotton when compared with pure cotton in
this cotton cropping system.
4.1. Cotton IPM Experience in the Country
The IPM based control methods are available to minimize reliance on pesticides and emphasizes
the contribution of other control methods.
From 2007 to 2009 were trained about 118
technicians and 962 farmers in a proportion of 75% men and 25 women in cotton integrated pest
and production management using demonstration plots. The participants were selected from 5
provinces (Cabo Delgado, Nampula, Zambézia, Niassa, Sofala and Tete) and training was
implemented by Cotton Institute of Cotton, Agrarian Research Institute of Mozambique and
Faultily of Agronomy of Eduardo Mondlane University in collaboration with Ginner Companies
and other stakeholders. Some of the implemented and on going cotton IPM approach in the
country (Fig.1):
•
Use of Strip intercropping of cotton with a trap crop: Promotion of cotton production
using mix cropping system with food and trap crop (area: 80% for cotton and 20% for other
crop) in Morrumbala and Mutarara Districts in collaboration with Dunavant Cotton Ginner
Company (2007 and 2008);
•
Use Chemical pest control based on economic threshold: Training of extension officers
cotton producers in cotton insect scouting in five provinces in collaboration with local
cotton companies;
•
Use of molasses as trap for adult of Lepidoptera: Demonstration of preparation of trap
molasses with the cotton farmers;
•
Use of “pegboard” for cotton insect monitoring: Training of farmers on use of
“pegboard” for monitoring cotton pest in the field;
7
•
Weed Control: Farmers are encouraged for early weeding for both weed suppression and
improvement of rainfall infiltration. More than 50 percent of labour time is devoted to
weeding and is mainly done by the women and children in the farmer’s family. In some
areas the farmers associations are being trained on use of animal traction for wedding in
combination with other cultural control methods. A combination of different herbicide
tactics (preemergence, postemergence) in addition to mechanical strategies can provide
the best results, but the use of herbicides by small scale farmers is not common in the
country.
8
1. Introduction
Summary of Production Trends and
Cotton Research Status in
Mozambique
•
As Mozambique recovers from war and undergoes
economic reform, given its favorable agroecological
endowment, improved agricultural performance is
essential to the smallholder income growth and improved
rural food security;
•
Cotton is one of the cash crops of particular importance in
the Country and is largely produced in rural areas,
involving about 300 thousand small-scale farmers;
•
About 96% of cotton seed come from small scale farm,
3.7% from farmer associations and 0.3% form private
sectors.
•
10 professional companies have cotton as their core
business and create over 20.000 employments throughout
it value chain, namely seasonal and permanent workers.
2010 SEACF MEETING
Sandy Creations, Lusaka, Zambia
09 March 2010
1
2. Cotton Production Statistics/Trends
1. Introduction (Cont.)
• Cotton yield is low in the whole country:
•
•
•
•
2
late sowing and insufficient protection against insects/weeds
small-sized fields and inadequate cultural practices
fall of the cotton price in international markets
and new emergence alternative cash crop for cotton growers
•
Cotton subsector is the main income earner for some
250,000 rural households
•
Generates about 20.000 of jobs.
•
Generates nearly 40 million USD in agriculture exports per
year.
•
The average yield in Mozambique is 500kg/ha of seed
cotton
•
Production levels have bounced back though:
• To solve this problem cotton research programme is
addressed to:
• Cotton germplasm renovation and development of improved
varieties
• Develop integrated pest and production management
• Improve of cotton fiber yield and quality
• Improve cotton production economics (cotton production
efficiency, gin profitability
• Technical transfer and appropriate delivery of package
•
•
now is about 70,000 Mtons/year
The yet untapped potential, however, is 350,000 Mtons/year
4
2. Cotton Production Statistics/Trends (Cont.)
3. Cotton Research Status
160
.
1973/73
144.061 Tons
2005/06
2008/09
69.505 Tons
= 122. 287 Tons
140
120
( 1000 Tons)
100
The Cotton research is still conventional and
currently its program has developed research
projects for components of plant breeding,
plant protection and agronomy.
80
•
Plant Breeding
60
•
•
•
•
•
1985/85
+ Baixa = 5.200
40
20
0
1931 1934 1937 1940 1943 1946 1949 1952 1955 1958 1961 1964 1967 1970 1973 1976 1979 1982 1985 1988 1991 1994 1997 2000 2003 2006 2009
( YEARS )
5
Independence of Moza,bique
Germplasm renovation and development of improved varieties
Testing 21 varieties/lines;
Testing material from CIRAD;
Breeding for production of new varieties
most adapted and used varieties CA 324, ISA-205 and STAM42.
6
Cotton Research Status (Cont.)
•
•
•
•
•
•
Cotton Research Status (Cont.)
Plant Protection
Testing efficacy of different insecticides
Development of the scouting based spray method
Evaluation of effect strip intercropping for management of
cotton pest
Economic Impact of use of herbicide for weed control
Agronomy
•
•
•
•
promote the use of composted biomass and chipped
(fragmented) cotton plant residues as a soil additive in
heavily eroded soils
Develop conservation practices for integrated soil nutrient
management (mulching, intercropping with legume crops,
chipping and incorporation of crop residues).
Evaluation of plant density for different soil types
Inorganic fertilizer use
&
Thank You for Kind attention
9
• Technology Transfer
– Training of extension officers and famers
– Best agronomic practices
– Dissemination of IPPM knowledge
8