Maravi

(HERALD) Communal, A1 resettled farmers dominate tobacco industry

Communal, A1 resettled farmers dominate tobacco industry
Tuesday, 28 June 2011 01:00
Business Reporter

Communal and A1 resettled farmers are now dominating the tobacco industry with the two sectors contributing 81 percent of the registered growers for the 2011-12 farming season.

So far, 65 439 farmers have registered to produce flue-cured tobacco next season and of these, 49 631 growers are A1 and communal farmers. According to the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board, 24 051 of the 49 631 registered farmers are communal while 28 580 are A1 farmers.

The balance of 12 808 farmers is made up of 6 905 farmers from the small-scale commercial sector, 1 747 large-scale and 4 156 A2 farmers sector has growers.
Since the land reform programme, a number of new players have joined the tobacco industry with communal and A1 farmers topping the list.

The number of tobacco farmers registered so far is an improvement from last season. A total of 53 065 farmers had registered to grow tobacco by August last year.

Communal area farmers are also topping the list of burley producers with 370 having so far registered to grow next season.

The A1 sector so far has 131 registered growers, 42 are from the small-scale sector, 27 from A2 and four from the large-scale sector.

Macheke farmer Mrs Alice Chibamu, who has not been growing tobacco, said although the crop was labour intensive it was highly rewarding.

"We have since diversified so that if one fails we will still get profits from other crops. Most small-scale farmers in our area now have a plot for tobacco production and we hope the prices will continue to improve," she said.

Tobacco Association of Zimbabwe secretary general Mr Stan Kasukuwere said the fact that communal and A1 farmers were dominating the tobacco industry was a remarkable achievement since the sector used to be dominated by white commercial farmers.

"The land reform has opened our eyes and now every other farmer wants to produce tobacco. For the past 10 years we have seen a shift on farmers moving from traditional crops to the former elite crops.

"Our farmers have also gained experience and now have the technical know how to produce the crop," he said.

Mr Kasukuwere said the quality of the crop being produced has been improving over the years and said he was confident Zimbabwe will soon get back to become one of the major producer of the golden leaf.

TIMB has decentralised registration to provinces to speed up the process and also make it convenient for farmers outside Harare.

TIMB chief executive Dr Andrew Matibiri said registration was important in that farmers needed to have growers numbers which are used to identify farmers when they bring their tobacco to the floors.

He said the growers' number were also critical in the processing of payments once farmers have sold their crop and when they are applying for support from tobacco contractors.

Tobacco has emerged one the best paying crop compared to maize and cotton which explains why most farmers are now shifting to the producing the crop.

The industry has, however, been experiencing some challenges as it is failing to cope with the increasing number of growers.

Labels: A1 FARMERS, A2 FARMERS, LAND REFORM, TOBACCO

posted by MrK @ 9:24 PM