daniel chigunwe
Elita Chikwati
Senior Agriculture Reporter
Farmers have already planted 15 544 hectares of tobacco in this new season, representing a 25 percent rise in the area compared to the same period last year, with the bulk of the dryland crop still to be planted out.
The latest weekly update from the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development shows that Mashonaland East is leading in tobacco planting.
Agritex’s acting director, Mr Stancilae Tapererwa, said by October 22, farmers had planted 12 939 hectares of irrigated tobacco and 2 605 hectares under dryland.
During the same period last year, farmers had put 10 089 hectares under irrigation and 2 297ha under dryland.
Farmers in Mashonaland East had planted 5 251ha by October 22, Mashonaland West 4 385ha, Manicaland 3 616ha, Mashonaland Central 2 272ha and Midlands 20ha, of irrigated tobacco.
Tobacco production has been on the rise in the past few years.
While contract farming initiated by the major merchants has dominated production in recent years, making it difficult for the auction floors with just over six percent of the crop to fulfil their subsidiary role of setting the market prices, Government has created a revolving fund with an initial injection from Treasury of US$60 million for the production of 60 million kg in the coming season.
This will allow more farmers to be self-financing rather than tied to a contractor and increase significantly the amount of tobacco sold at auction.
Contract growing is expected to continue to be a major factor in production for years to come, but the revolving fund will help restore what is seen as a better balance between the two funding models.
The Tobacco Value Chain Transformation Plan, aimed at turning around the tobacco value chain into a US$5 billion industry by 2025, is a strategic way of creating opportunities that will benefit the whole value chain.
The strategy was taken after a realisation that Zimbabwe was not getting maximum benefits from its tobacco crop in terms of value addition and beneficiation.
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