admin
Precious Manomano-Herald Reporter
Agriculture experts have urged tobacco growers to destroy stalks as this may result in the contamination of the soil and spreading of the diseases thereby threatening the lucrative tobacco industry.
A Statutory Instrument 711 of 1979 was put in place to curb the spread of tobacco pests by introducing tobacco-free periods every year to break the pests’ life cycle.
According to the SI, all tobacco stalks in the field should be destroyed before 15th May of every year. This means rendering the tobacco plants incapable of growth.
In an interview, Zimbabwe Farmers Union secretary general, Mr Paul Zakariya said farmers are expected to have removed all tobacco in fields by May 15 every year still stands to strengthen awareness of such legislative issues.
“There is a need to sustain the industry through quality tobacco and this can only be achieved by sticking to set legislative dates, meant to protect the farmers from this threat of diseases. Everyone knows about this law. Non-compliance farmers are likely to face the risk of high Production costs because of the costs that are associated in the treatment of the soil,” he said.
The Plant Pests and Disease Act (Chapter 19:08) makes it mandatory for farmers to destroy all living tobacco plants by the May 15 deadline as failure to do so would attract a fine.
Non-compliance by tobacco growers with the regulation has continued to increase despite awareness campaigns carried out by different organisations such as the Tobacco Research Board (TRB), Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) and some farmers’ unions. Failure by farmers to remove stalks has resulted in the spread of diseases and resurfacing of diseases that had become extinct for over 60 years, threatening the viability of the industry that is contributing immensely to economic growth.
Most commercial farmers are compliant and the problem is mostly with smallholder farmers where most of them were complaining of unavailability of labour force to do the work whilst others were showing ignorance on the importance of destalking.
Mrs Tamari Rucheya of Maheu area in Banket said the process of destalking is expensive since there is a need of hiring people to do the work.
“We know that the law requires us to destalk but this is another serious work which needs a lot of money. There is nothing we can do but to follow what the law says. We are aware the law but most farmers here delay to remove the stalks because of limited time. This time we are also busy doing serious business in gardens whilst others are at the auction floors selling tobacco, at the same time we are also harvesting maize and preparing land to plant wheat. We are doing a lot during this time, We have to make sure that all these processes are done within this short period of time,” he said.
Mr Elton Mumanikidzwa of Dalston area in Raffingora showed ignorance on destalking of tobacco saying he has no time to do the work now but hoping to remove the stalks in the next season.
“I will do the work when l want to use the field. We are waiting for the next season to do the work. At the moment we are busy doing other things. We are aware of the situation because we do meetings where we are persuaded to remove stalks but at the moment we can do other important issues of harvesting maize,” he said.
Tobacco is one of the major foreign currency earners for the country after gold, contributing nearly US$800 million annually.
Online Reporter