According to the Minister of Agriculture, Mr Nhaca, the government will reduce the validity of cotton contracts from the previous 25 years to seven years from next July. This according to the minister is to help the country increase cotton crop production.
He said, all the previous contracts signed earlier stand nullified to make it possible to move over to the new standardized version in terms of validity and other aspects. There are currently ten cotton concessionaires in the country.
He explained by saying that, the new seven year contracts will help kept track of the developments and if needed course can be changed midway in order to attain the production target of 120,000 tons from the current 80,000 tons.
The concession development plan will be mandatory and will have to focus on improving and maintaining seed varieties in a bid to generate higher yields. This new cotton development plan will also help attract new investors, the minister hoped.