BY BANELE MAGONGO
MBABANE – Government has allocated E2.5 million to help cotton farmers to improve their production.
This was revealed by Minister of Agriculture Mandla Tshawuka on Friday (July 12, 2025) during his tour at Big Bend, Nisela Farms with the initiative to support cotton farming.
Tshawuka stated that the output of cotton was low in the country because previously, the value of this crop was low and commercial farmers were making a loss.
According to Tshawuka, government has allocated a sum of E2.5 Million to help cotton farmers.
He said they had consultation with the cotton board to increase the buying price of cotton from 6 500 to 7 500 per ton which was a 25 percent increase.
He explained that the raise was initiated for farmers to get reasonable returns from their harvest of the cotton.
“We have observed how the cotton processing machine functions, we are grateful to Nisela Farms for the machine which has a capacity to process 25 000 tons but the country is unable to meet the capacity of the machine” he said.
He stated that the machine was only supplied with about two to three percent cotton but Nisela Farms helps in meeting part of the machine capacity, because Nisela grew cotton in a large scale and they had a reliable source of water. The Minister encouraged Emaswati, particularly those in the lowveld, to venture into cotton farming, as it did not require a lot of water. He also stated that there were lucrative opportunities to be realised, if people ventured into growing cotton.
