THERE is a massive food shortage fear in most parts of Zimbabwe as most farmers have turned to tobacco farming since the cash crop has changed their life for the better.
REPORT BY JAIROS SAUNYAMA OWN CORRESPONDENT
This has seen a number of farmers countrywide, even in small-scale farming, venturing into tobacco farming with most of them dumping grain farming.
Most farmers who are still in maize production are doing so for consumption purposes, leaving the nation with fears of a grain shortage.
A survey conducted in rural areas revealed most farmers are busy in their tobacco fields as they try to produce the best leaf for the coming tobacco marketing season.
Farmers from different rural areas said their changeover to tobacco was a result of maize not fetching much on the market as compared to tobacco. Some farmers said they were not happy about the operations of the Grain Marketing Board (GMB), describing the parastatal as not transparent in its operations.
“Farmers who were involved in tobacco farming last season did quite well as compared to maize farmers. Do you know that a farmer who sells a bale of tobacco gets more than a farmer who sells three tonnes of maize, that is if you get paid?” said Panganai Nharira, a farmer from Wedza.
“GMB has never been serious in its operations for the past few years and it’s better to go for cash crops so that we can earn a living.Maize is not paying, yet we don’t have any option, but to go for the golden leaf which has brought fortunes to most farmers in the country,” said Stanford Murambiwa from Hurungwe.
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Last month, Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board chief executive Andrew Matibiri said the number of tobacco farmers registered for the 2013 season increased by over 22 000 compared to the previous year as more farmers turned to the golden leaf.
Matibiri said the number of growers for the current agricultural season increased to 64 775.
A1 farmers accounted for about 43% of the growers, while A2, commercial and small scale commercial farmers accounted for 7%, 40% and 10% respectively.
“A lot of farmers have switched to tobacco from other crops after they realised that it’s more paying than other crops,” Matibiri said.
The 2012 tobacco marketing season ran for a total 145 selling days for both auction and contract tobacco sales. There were 71 316 registered tobacco growers with over 80% of them coming from the small-scale sector and growing an average of 1,3 hectares each. The licensing of four tobacco auction floors eased the marketing of the golden leaf.
The four — Tobacco Sales Floor, Boka Tobacco Floor, Premier Tobacco Floor and Millennium Tobacco Floor — helped reduce the congestion and chaos that has always characterised the selling season.
Several years ago, Zimbabwe not only produced enough maize to feed its people, but also had surplus to export. More recently, Zimbabwe’s food security position is governed by its inability to attain self-sufficiency in maize production and this position is now set to get worse.
Output in 2012 was less than half of domestic consumption and substantial imports will be necessary to meet the production deficit.
