Private cotton buyers invade Sanyati 

Community leaders and farmers in Sanyati are up in arms with fly by night cotton buyers who have invaded the area enticing villagers to side-market cotton grown under the Presidential Free Inputs Scheme to private buyers who did not sponsor the crop.

In what can be described as white gold rush, unscrupulous dealers have invaded cotton belts of the country where they are using hard cash to lure farmers to divert cotton produced under government support.

Investigations by ZBC News reveals that private companies who did not sponsor the crop are hiring private security companies to ferry hard cash to cotton buying points where their agents entice farmers to side market cotton produced under the government scheme.

Pictures of the cars delivering cash to Sanyati have been exposed as the development sparked some fights in Sanyati where villagers have raised a red flag against the local legislator (name withheld) for allegedly working in cahoots the fly by night buyers to derail the presidential scheme.

What boggles the mind is – where are these private buyers getting the loads of cash whilst the country is battling with cash shortages?

Cottco is expected to buy about 110 000 tones of the white gold produced under the Presidential Free Inputs Scheme.

As calls to weed out unscrupulous cotton buyers continue to grow louder, experts say there is need for government to urgently intervene and arrest the culprits as any further delay in dealing with the situation will scuttle the presidential scheme which is a source of livelihood to millions of people countrywide.