Online Reporter
Agriculture Reporter
PREPARATIONS for the 2025 tobacco season are continuing with farmers procuring seed enough to cover more than 139 000 hectares.
The Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) weekly bulletin shows that the amount of tobacco seed sold so far is 12 percent more than what had been sold during the same period last year.
According to the bulletin, farmers have bought 695,82 kilogrammes of seed, enough to cover 139 164 hectares, compared to 622,50 kg, enough to cover 124 500 hectares last season.
Most farmers with irrigation facilities have sown on seedbeds, while others are still planting.
Sowing on the seedbed starts on June 1, 2025, for the irrigated crop, which is mostly grown by contracted farmers.
Most smallholder farmers who rely on rain-fed agriculture are expected to start sowing in July and August.
Meanwhile, farmers have sold 321 million kilogrammes of tobacco on the floors worth more than US$1 billion.
Stakeholders are now looking beyond 330 million kilogrammes with others estimating this year’s volumes to reach 400 million kilogrammes.
Tobacco production has been on the increase over the years, with communal, A1 and small-scale farmers dominating the industry.
The crop continues to attract farmers because of an orderly marketing where farmers get their payments timeously.
The bulk of the crop is, however, being produced under contract farming, with farmers getting inputs and technical advice.
The farmers are guaranteed adequate inputs.
The system has, however, presented challenges as some companies sell the inputs at exorbitant prices while others do not pay on time. This has seen some farmers side-marketing the crop. The Government is working to ensure farmers get adequate funding to support their tobacco farming enterprises.
More is also being done to promote value addition of the crop before export to increase earnings.
Tobacco is ranked as one of the most economically important non-food crops in Zimbabwe, earning the country hundreds of millions of US dollars annually.
There are 135 152 registered tobacco growers countrywide.
The tobacco crop is important to the country as a foreign currency earner, contributing to improved livelihoods and employing a large number of the poor rural population.
Earnings from tobacco have improved the livelihoods of both smallholder, medium and large-scale farmers.
