admin
Tawanda Mangoma Business Correspondent
Tobacco farmers in Masvingo Province are calling for the decentralisation of auction floors as transporting their crop to Harare is eating much of their profits.
Farmers from Masvingo have been moving into tobacco farming after their traditional cash crops maize and cotton failed to yield much profits due to price uncertainty.
The Tobacco Research Board last year gave farmers in selected districts of the province the green light to grow the golden leaf after a successful pilot project.
However, the new tobacco farmers have been soldiering on in their third cropping season with difficulties in marketing their crop. They said transporting their crop to auction floors in Harare and funding their own accommodation when they travel to the capital to sell their tobacco was a big challenge.
Jacob Charumbira of Kepure Ranch in Masvingo said the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) must open auction floors in the province as a measure to save farmers from transport costs.
“We want auction floors in Masvingo Province. It’s very costly to transport tobacco from Masvingo to Harare. I think if TIMB wants farmers from Masvingo to survive in this business I guess they can opt to open just a small depot which would cater for the few farmers in the province,” said Charumbira.
Another farmer Chipadza Chitoro from Masvingo West said tobacco farmers would be forced to seek accommodation at expensive booking houses in Harare as they wait for their produce to go through the auction floors.
“You struggle to transport your tobacco to Harare and when you get there you will be forced to look for accommodation since operations at auction floors are slow. At times you can spend three weeks in Harare staying in a lodge or hotel and all the profits would be blown in Harare,” said Chitoro.
Chitoro said decentralising auction floors would benefit the farmer while bringing development to all corners of the country.
“I don’t know why everything must be in Harare; we want development to spread evenly across the country. Auction floors must not be centralised in Harare as this causes commotion as we have witnessed this year,” said Chitoro.
Edmore Bungemi also challenged government to take a greater role in protecting farmers from abuse by tobacco buyers.
“Government must monitor the operations of auction floors very closely. Farmers are being milked. We abandoned cotton and maize production because there was a lot of price confusion and now the wind has blown in the tobacco industry.
“Surely, we will be left with no crop to grow if pricing, availability of cheap inputs and innovation is not embraced. We are working flat out to revive the country’s agriculture sector but our efforts are being frustrated,” said Bungemi.
TIMB chief executive officer Dr Andrew Matibiri said many tobacco growing regions have appealed for auction floors but no one has shown interest in investing in such projects in the areas.
Dr Matibiri said volumes of tobacco coming from areas like Masvingo were still low hence the reluctance to set up a provincial auction floor.
“We have received calls from farmers to open provincial auction floors but no one has shown interest to invest in the idea. We have tobacco farmers in areas like Banket, Featherstone and even Masvingo who are doing well in tobacco but their volumes are still low for us to consider opening an auction floor. We are however monitoring the situation and if need be we will act,” he said.
Online Reporter