Wimbainashe Zhakata Mutare Correspondent
TOBACCO farmers have been urged to take heed of expert advice and destroy tobacco stalks on time in order to safeguard future high yields. In an interview with The Herald recently, an Agritex officer Mr Douglas Nzarayebani said farmers were expected to destroy their tobacco stalks by May 15 and establish seedbeds by July 1 before land preparations for the next season.

However, Mr Nzarayebani noted that some farmers were being stubborn and reluctant to stick to the timelines, thereby jeopardising future yields.

He said a recent inspection carried out on farms showed that most tobacco farmers were not following procedures.
Agritex officers toured Manicaland’s tobacco growing areas to check whether farmers were destroying stalks on time.

“During our inspection and monitoring this year we covered five districts in Manicaland province which include Mutasa, Makoni, Mutare, Nyanga and Buhera. The monitoring went well. We noted that some of the farmers were ignorant when it comes to destroying their tobacco stalks,” he said

“Our farmers seem too careless, they ignore the tobacco legislation. They have re-growths in their fields, which is bad. As Agritex we teach them a lot about farming. The reason why farmers are being negligent is not because they are ignorant but it is because they do not want to listen.

“Most of farmers who were causing these problems are resettlement farmers like those in Nyamajura, Makoni and Chikobvore. They are behaving badly and causing lots of problems for us.”