Online Reporter
Oliver Kazunga
Senior Business Reporter
THE area under tobacco in the 2024/2025 cropping season has increased by 10 percent to 120 106 hectares (ha) compared to 108 949ha in the corresponding period last year, official figures show.
According to the latest report from the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB), as at January 10, 2025, a total of 101 468ha were put under dryland tobacco while 18 638ha were for the irrigated crop.
During the same period last year, a total of 91 849ha were for the rain-fed crop while 17 100ha were under irrigated tobacco.
In Zimbabwe, the tobacco crop is grown through irrigation, with transplanting starting in September. The rain-fed crop is grown at the onset of the rainy season.
TIMB indicated that, of the total area planted so far, Mashonaland West province had the highest hectarage, at 40 634ha, showing a 2 percent improvement from the same period last year; while Mashonaland Central province has registered a 23 percent increase to 34 190ha; and Manicaland province (25 625ha), reflecting a 15 percent increase in the comparable period last year.
In the Midlands province, a total of 53ha have been planted so far, marking a 36 percent increase from the 39ha planted during the same period last year; while in Masvingo province, the planted area remained unchanged at 17ha compared to the same period last year.
In an interview, Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union chief economist Dr Prince Kuipa attributed the improvement in the tobacco hectarage to various factors, including pricing and financing.
“I think you can see that most of this actually is coming from smallholder farmers. Previously, before independence and slightly into independence, tobacco production was mainly dominated by large-scale farmers.
“The Land Reform Programme brought in quite a large number of smallholder farmers to participate in the tobacco value chain and this can be attributed to the increase in hectares over time . . . ,” he said.
As of January 17, 2025, TIMB reported that 126 477 farmers had registered for the 2024/2025 tobacco growing season, a 12 percent increase from the 113 161 registered during the same period in the 2023/2024 season.
Mashonaland Central province has the highest number of registered growers for the season so far, at 45 886, against 42 146 in the same period last year.
Of the 126 477 registered growers, 69 677 are communal farmers, including 42 431 A1 farmers, 6 653 small-scale commercial farmers and 7 716 A2 farmers.
In second place is Mashonaland West province with 43 683 registered growers, up from 40 154 in the comparable period last year.
As at January 10, 2024, Manicaland province had recorded 20 179, from 16 859 in the same period last year; while Mashonaland East province registered a 20 percent increase to 16 471 growers, from 13 764 in 2024.
As of January 10, 2025, the number of growers in the Midlands province increased to 172, from 148. Masvingo province recorded a 2 percent decrease, with 84 growers compared to 86 during the same period last year.
In Matabeleland, the number of growers remained steady at two.
Dr Kuipa said another major factor that would attract farmers to grow a crop is the price and availability of finance.
“There is a lot of contracting in tobacco. Farmers, in a way, have got access to finance through contract farming; therefore, that crop’s hectarage growth over time can be attributed to the availability of financing through contract farming and even also financing for smallholder farmers.
“Last year, there was El Niño, and the hectares could have been higher had it not been for the adverse effects of the El Niño in the 2023/2024 cropping season because we’ve got a significant proportion of our tobacco under rain-fed agriculture,” he said.
In 2023, Zimbabwe produced 294 million kilogrammes (kg) of the golden leaf, but output declined to 234 million kg last year due to the El Niño-induced drought that affected Zimbabwe and other parts of Southern Africa.
In a separate interview, economic commentator Ms Mercy Shumba echoed similar sentiments, adding that the tobacco sub-sector was more organised compared to others, a situation that attracts more farmers to produce the crop.
“You find that tobacco marketing is quite organised. And there is no farmer who grows tobacco and then fails to get their produce to the market.
“With some other cash crops, farmers are complaining of not yet receiving their money two seasons down the line, and that is not the same with tobacco.
“This then influences farmers to move from other crops and venture into tobacco,” she said.
Tobacco is the country’s second major foreign currency earner after gold, and is predominantly cultivated by smallholder farmers who received farms through the Land Reform Programme that Zimbabwe began in 2000.
Zimbabwe’s tobacco export earnings increased by 16,6 percent to US$1,4 billion, from 243,3 million kg exported last year.
In 2023, the country earned US$1,2 billion from 235,4 million kg of the golden leaf exported. The country exports the golden leaf to over 60 countries, with major consumers being China, the United Arab Emirates, South Africa, and Indonesia.
In 2021, the Cabinet approved the Tobacco Value Chain Transformation Plan aimed at boosting production of the crop to 300 million kg this year, while transforming the sub-sector to a US$5 billion economy and an additional US$10 billion by 2030.
Under the Tobacco Value Chain Transformation Plan, the Government also aims to raise localisation of the crop’s funding to 70 percent, improve the level of value addition and boost cigarette output to 30 percent from 2 percent.
In line with the above objectives, TIMB was this year rolling out several initiatives to bolster farmers’ viability and ensure the achievement of the 300 million kg yield.
