FAITH MADZINGA
The Zimbabwe Farmers Union president, Shadreck Makombe, has said the use of hybrid cotton seed variety would result in yield increasing to approximately 600 000 tonnes this year from 116 025 tonnes achieved last year.
In 2020, 82 479 tonnes of cotton were achieved.
“When it comes to hybrid seeds, this has been scientifically tested and proven. The hybrid advantage is that the yield definitely goes up because of research that is done and the output is known through the research, whereas with traditional open pollinated ones they have got a challenge that we cannot control. They can behave the way they want,” Makombe said .
He said the increase in use of Zimbabwe’s own cotton hybrid seed will boost and improve cotton yield as it has come to attention how the other seeds are becoming resistant to pesticides and also improvement that is not very satisfying.
“There is no other thing to do so as to boost cotton production other than increase in use of cotton hybrid seed unless there is an increase in hectarage,” Makombe said.
The increase in hectarage will also work in hand with the hybrid seed which was introduced in 2018 to increase cotton production which is being taken lightly, he said.
“Due to the late onset of rains it led to the delay in planting resulting in late planting that is the other reason that disturbed cotton production. What is known is that its increased use will boost the production from 116,052 tonnes to 600 000 tonnes,” he said.
Makombe said the hybrid seeds were resistant to some diseases since they were coming from labs.
“They might have been restricted to some fields but now this time they are going to be put out in large scales or mass production,” he said.
