{"id":42460,"date":"2023-03-18T00:01:43","date_gmt":"2023-03-18T00:01:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/?p=42460"},"modified":"2023-03-17T08:50:47","modified_gmt":"2023-03-17T08:50:47","slug":"cotton-stakeholders-push-for-green-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/cotton-stakeholders-push-for-green-economy","title":{"rendered":"Cotton stakeholders push for green economy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Zambia. <\/strong><\/span>The Cotton Development Trust (CDT), the country\u2019s premier research institution is on a mission to better the livelihoods of cotton farmers and meet the needs of other cotton players such as the ginners. The CDT, based in Magoye on the outskirts of Mazabuka District in Southern Province, is conducting various research activities that stretch from germplasm testing to come up with improved varieties and also various other research activities meant to provide solutions to pest management, soil problems and so on.<\/p>\n

Zambia is now part of the international cotton advisory cotton and the breeder at CDT Martin Simasiku was elected as a member of the international cotton researchers association at the just-ended Seventh World Cotton Conference in Egypt. Both platforms give the CDT an advantage to take part in driving the cotton sector in the right direction through networks and opportunities that will be available through projects and other partnerships.<\/p>\n

Mr Simasiku says currently the CDT is collaborating with different organisations to spearhead the cotton improvement agenda in line with the government\u2019s National Agricultural Policy to improve the lives of small holder cotton farmers. He says organisations CDT is collaborating with include the International Trade Centre (ITC), Europe Union, The Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States is a group of countries, International Cotton Advisory Committe and Solidaridad and others.<\/p>\n

CDT director Lwisya Silwimba said his institutions is developing varieties that are of compact architecture to accelerate growth and mitigate the effect of late pests.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs CDT we are also aiming at producing early maturing varieties that are able to mitigate the adverse effects of erratic rainfall which is a major effect of climate change. Through the programme carried out by ITC and other organisations, the CDT is promoting the use of Biochar as a soil amendment measure to improve the soil,\u201d Mr Silwimba says<\/p>\n

He says the use of Biochar highly reduces the effect of climate change through carbon sequestration in the cotton stalks, a process that meets the carbon net zero objective because it produces or captures carbon at a very low rate of carbon dioxide emission.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn addition to this, we are training farmers on good agricultural practices such as the use of bio-fertilizers, instead of using synthetic fertilizers which could be a source of harmful greenhouse effect gasses such as Nitrous oxide,\u201d Mr Silwimba says He says the other agricultural practices is the use of bio -pesticides which help reduce resurgence in pests.<\/p>\n

\u201cTraining of farmers in the use Molar traps is also being highly promoted by the CDT to significantly reduce the number of sprays for bollworms if possible to zero. The use of molasses, which is an effective substance in attracting pests has shown a lot potential as an alternative integral pest measure. Molar traps are cheap and do not harm beneficial pests a plus in the balance of the ecosystem,\u201d Mr Silwimba said<\/p>\n

He said ripping is also another type of minimum tillage approach that is being promoted among farmers. \u201cThis type of land preparation causes very little harm to microorganisms in the soil. Because microorganisms are less harmed, it offers a chance for the microorganisms to continue trapping carbon dioxide and sequestering it as carbon which is in form of glomalins and humus. These (glomalins and humus) are good sources of organic matter. High organic matter also improves the status of soils by reducing highly acidic soils and providing rich soil nutrients,\u201d Mr Silwimba said<\/p>\n

In addition to this, Mr Silwimba said ripping maintains the soil structure which helps in reducing adverse effects of too much rainfall such as erosion and mineral leaching.<\/p>\n

Cotton Board of Zambia executive director Sunduzwayo Banda cotton farmers in Zambia are using economic friendly methods for crop nutrition such as biochar, which is burnt stalks in a pit that traps carbon which is put back in the soil.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe target is to have net zero carbon emissions into the environment,\u201d Mr Banda said. He said farmers are being encouraged to use integrated pest management that lessens spraying into the environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are reducing exposure to chemicals. Cotton is a drought tolerate meaning it uses less water, which is water conservation,\u201d Mr Banda said.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Zambia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Zambia. The Cotton Development Trust (CDT), the country\u2019s premier research institution is on a mission to better the livelihoods of cotton farmers and meet the needs of other cotton players such as the ginners. The CDT, based in Magoye on the outskirts of Mazabuka District in Southern Province, is conducting various research activities […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":42458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,248],"tags":[234,235,233],"class_list":["post-42460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","category-to-homepage","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-zambia","tag-zambia"],"yoast_head":"\nCotton stakeholders push for green economy - Zambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Cotton Development Trust (CDT), the country\u2019s premier research institution is on a mission to better the livelihoods ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/cotton-stakeholders-push-for-green-economy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cotton stakeholders push for green economy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Cotton Development Trust (CDT), the country\u2019s premier research institution is on a mission to better the livelihoods ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/cotton-stakeholders-push-for-green-economy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Zambia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-03-18T00:01:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zambia\/sites\/35\/2023\/03\/postQueueImg_1679030116.91.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/cotton-stakeholders-push-for-green-economy#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/cotton-stakeholders-push-for-green-economy\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Cotton stakeholders push for green economy\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-03-18T00:01:43+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/cotton-stakeholders-push-for-green-economy\"},\"wordCount\":716,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/cotton-stakeholders-push-for-green-economy#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zambia\/sites\/35\/2023\/03\/postQueueImg_1679030116.91.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Zambia\",\"Zambia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"economy\",\"to-homepage\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/cotton-stakeholders-push-for-green-economy#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/cotton-stakeholders-push-for-green-economy\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/cotton-stakeholders-push-for-green-economy\",\"name\":\"Cotton stakeholders push for green economy - 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