UMGUZA farmer Henry Mpofu says lack of adequate knowledge on tobacco farming had resulted in them losing money after growing the crop.

MTHANDAZO NYONI
OWN CORRESPONDENT

Mpofu said he ventured into tobacco farming in the 2013 to 2014 farming season hoping to rake in thousands of dollars like his counterparts in the Mashonaland provinces, but lost out.

“I planted one hectare and produced only five tonnes. Out of five tonnes, I was hoping to rake in about $3 000, but I was shocked after getting only $9. Prices of the golden leaf at the auction floors in Harare were as low as 10 cents per kg and it was discouraging,” Mpofu said.

Due to the losses they made, Mpofu said he put off tobacco farming this season.

He said tobacco is a technical crop which requires skilled labour, but unfortunately people in the Matabeleland region are not well versed in tobacco farming.

He added that officials from Agritex (agricultural extension) in the region lacked knowledge on how tobacco is grown.

“We were not well informed from the word go. We were doing trial and error kind of farming. We didn’t even know that we must have a barn to cure tobacco and at the end of the day we lost everything. We didn’t even know how we were supposed to present ourselves in the auction floors,” he said.

Mpofu said they took their tobacco to auction floors in Harare late and discovered that farmers from Mashonaland had already sold theirs.

“Education is key to everything. We have acquired our own barns and I have already cleared two hectares of land for the next season,” he added.

Henry said more than 40 farmers had shown interest in venturing into tobacco farming next season and have pinned their hopes on contract farming.

That the market was in Harare where tobacco is sold through auction floors also posed a challenge because some farmers work with contractors who always buy their tobacco unlike at auction floors where merchants only buy tobacco when they are impressed by the grade.

Mpofu urged the government to avail funds for buying inputs. For example, to construct a barn to cure tobacco costs more than $900.

The district Agritex officer for Umguza district Shalene Mabharani said local farmers lacked capital and proper barns for curing the golden leaf.

“There were lots of wastages last season due to inadequate barns for curing the crop and farmers said they don’t have money to buy inputs needed this season. As a result, only two farmers undertook farming in this season and they have a combination of 3,8 hectares.

From these hectares they are expecting to produce two tonnes per hectare,” Mabharani said.

Matabeleland North had planted 22 hectares of tobacco in the 2013 to 2014 farming season and from that, Transport minister Obert Mpofu planted 13 hectares.

Transport and Infrastructure Development minister Obert Mpofu

Out of 22 hectares the region produced 42 tonnes of high quality tobacco, according to Mabharani. She said minister Mpofu had reduced his hectarage from 13 to three hectares while other farmers chickened out.

She said farmers were expecting to produce 7,6 tonnes from 3,8 hectares. There has been an upsurge in the number of farmers venturing into tobacco farming in Matabeleland North since 2013.

The region is not known for growing tobacco due to the unfavourable climate, but trial runs by some farmers have shown that the crop can do well.

The golden leaf was once grown in the region in the 1920s, and in 1924 the first tobacco research station was established in Hillside, Bulawayo where much of the air-cured crop was grown in Matabeleland.

In 2012, a female farmer Shandu Gumede from Umguza defied the odds and revived the farming of the golden leaf crop.

She started off with three hectares and increased to seven in 2014.

After that, a handful of small-scale and large-scale farmers ventured into the production of the crop. Tobacco contributes 20% to the country’s gross domestic product.

Latest figures from the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board indicated that as of December 5 2014, tobacco export earnings were $736,2 million from 128,8 million kg sold at an average price of $5,72 a kg.

During the same period in 2013, a total of 146,8 million kgs were exported at an average price of $5,65 a kg, raking in $830,2 million.
The report revealed that as of December 5; a total of 87 597 growers had registered to grow tobacco in the 2014/15 farming season compared to 84 728 who registered during the same period in 2013.

Zimbabwe exports the golden leaf to more than 50 countries, among them China, South Africa, Indonesia, Russia, Malaysia and Belgium.
Marketing of the golden leaf is expected to begin this month.