With the cotton price stalemate hitting small farmers hard, some cotton farmers in the country are not aware of their exclusion in this year’s government subsidy programme implementation.

According to Nationonline,  some parts of a cotton growing district of Salima, it was leant that most cotton farmers are ignorant of the changes and they described the decision by government as “a raw deal.”

Hastings Manjomeka Phiri, a cotton grower from Mlungamanja Village said he anticipated to receive free cotton pesticides for his cotton production this year and expressed shock when he was told of their exclusion.

Finance Minister Ken Kandodo announced in his 2009-10 Budget Statement that government will this year be limited to food crops to sustain food security. He said that would mean scaling down total fertilizer subsidy requirements to 160,000 tonnes.

Meanwhile, the Farmers Union of Malawi (FUM) has expressed shock over the cotton farmers’ exclusion, accusing government of not intensifying awareness campaign to sensitize the farmers to the immediate withdrawal of commercial crops subsidy.

President for Chikwawa Cotton Growers Association, Davis Rice, also accused government for sidelining commercial farmers in this year’s subsidy programme as well as for not informing them on the changes.

Farmers are yet to sell their cotton following a stand-off over prices between buyers, who are offering at least K42 per kg, and government which insists on the K75 per kg minimum prices. Meanwhile, intermediate buyers are taking advantage of farmers’ desperation to buy the crop at lower prices under cover of darkness.