Lands and Agriculture Minister Dr Anxious Masuka on Wednesday acknowledged the challenges facing Zimbabwe’s tobacco growers, saying depressed prices and rising production costs are threatening the livelihoods of thousands of farmers.
Officially opening the International Tobacco Growers’ Association (ITGA) Africa Regional Meeting 2026 in Harare, Masuka dispensed with formalities and spoke as a tobacco farmer.
“Our government moves are tiresome. Many people are put up to introduce someone and it takes long,” Masuka said. “I am a tobacco farmer and I started in 1985. Tobacco is in my veins.”
Masuka said he had personally felt the impact of low prices this marketing season.
“This year prices were unpleasant. I was also affected,” he said.
He said production costs had risen by about 90% since 2017 while farmers were grappling with global oversupply, declining prices offered by merchants and disputes under contract farming arrangements.
“Tobacco pays our bills and we must see that improvement done,” Masuka said, noting that about 135,000 growers earn an average of US$9,800 annually from the crop.
“The sector cannot survive on talk alone.”
The minister dismissed claims that tobacco production is a major driver of deforestation, saying the industry has strengthened sustainability measures.
“It is under our control. We have a sustainable checklist, especially on soils and plantation firewood,” he said, adding that traceability had become essential for maintaining access to export markets.
Masuka also announced that Cabinet had approved “Kutsvaga,” an updated research and extension programme from the Tobacco Research Board’s Kutsaga Research Station to support growers.
To improve price stability, he proposed an indigenous afforestation levy, a corporate social responsibility levy and a stronger tobacco price stabilisation fund.
“We must consolidate the market and ensure a sufficient crop,” he said.
On tobacco control, Masuka said restrictions should focus on preventing underage smoking rather than adult consumption.
“Let’s ban smoking for underage, but those old enough, they must. Tobacco transforms livelihoods,” he said.
Zimbabwe Tobacco Association president Graham Ross said the industry’s history has been marked by recurring cycles of prosperity and hardship.
“The first commercial crop was produced in 1884, over 140 years ago, and sold in 1885 for four shillings and six pence per pound,” Ross said.
“The intervening years have been a cycle of boom and bust, hardship and abundance, famine and deluge. The issues that face us now are no different to the issues that plagued growers of yesteryear.”
Ross said the resilience of tobacco growers had been tested for more than a century and called for unity in addressing current challenges.
“Today we call on growers to demonstrate the same resilience, fortitude and adaptability as we tackle some of the challenges that face our existence,” he said.
He said more than two million Zimbabweans depend on tobacco and related industries for their livelihoods.
Ross also highlighted the importance of the ITGA, saying it provides a platform for growers to “discard our individual bias, personal, selfish aims and combine to deliberate and speak with one, united regional voice.”
Delegates from Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, India and Portugal attended the regional meeting, where discussions centred on production costs, environmental sustainability, traceability and measures to improve returns for tobacco farmers.