Elita Chikwati, Harare Bureau
Hwange Colliery Company will next year lend tobacco growers coal for curing, a move likely to reduce deforestation in farming areas.

Speaking at the close of the 2015 marketing season and National Tobacco Workshop held in Harare recently, Hwange Colliery sales and marketing manager, Debra Malandu said the company also planned to cut the price of coal to make it affordable to rural tobacco farmers.

She said many tobacco farming communities could not afford coal to cure their tobacco because it was very expensive.

“Many people in the communal areas don’t have access to electricity. We realised most small scale farmers are growing tobacco. We are targeting to lend farmers producing between 0,2 hectares and five hectares,” Malandu said.

“There is a myth that coal is expensive, but when considering the properties, it is efficient in terms of the heat produced. Coal is also good for the environment and a good alternative to firewood.

“In 2016 we will continue to adjust coal prices because we have acquired new machinery, which will reduce costs.”

Tobacco Research Board general manager Dehlia Garwe said the institution would come up with technology to reduce firewood consumption during tobacco curing.

“We’re curbing curing related deforestation. We came up with a rocket barn but found that it had the challenge of high fuel consumption,” she said.

“We have come up with the Kutsaga Counter Current Barn, which is homegrown. This barn uses 3 to 3,5kg of wood to cure a kilogramme of tobacco. Farmers can also use biogas but there is need to increase the size of the digester.”