BAT programme benefits 700 farmers

MORE than 700 tobacco farmers have benefited from the British American Tobacco Zimbabwe Empowerment Trust-sponsored training programmes that were initiated at Chaminuka Vocational Training Centre in 2015. The diploma and certificate courses have since been spread to Manicaland and Mashonaland West provinces, while traditional tobacco farmers have also benefited from short courses availed by the Trust.

In an interview, the Trust’s projects manager, Mr Vimbai Makumbe, said the training programmes were part of BAT Zimbabwe’s corporate social responsibility programme.

“The BAT Zimbabwe Empowerment Trust which was formed in 2013 has 10 percent shares in the parent company and we receive a dividend that we use to empower tobacco farmers through training programmes.

“We are working with the Ministry of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation where we are utilising their vocational training centres to offer diploma and certificate courses for tobacco farmers. We started with a certificate course at Chaminuka Vocational Training Centre and we have since spread to Magamba Vocational Training Centre in Manicaland and Mashayamombe Vocational Training Centre in Mashonaland West. All these VCTs are now associate colleges of Bindura University of Science Technology which certify the courses. Our first intake at Chaminuka VCT had 132 students, with 74 studying for the diploma course and 58 students enrolled for the certificate course.

“The diploma course runs for three years, while the certificate course runs for a year. Our enrolment has been increasing every year and we now have training programmes for communal tobacco farmers where we aim to empower them with the necessary skills on how to obtain better yields and taking farming as a business venture,” said Mr Makumbe.

Besides the training programmes, the trust has helped in the refurbishment of infrastructure at the VCTs they are operating from. “At Chaminuka VCT, we managed to refurbish the students’ halls of residence, classrooms, Information Technology Centre laboratory and library. We also provided Wi-Fi services to the centre, installed a 10-hectare sprinkler irrigation facility as well as constructing five tobacco curing barns. We also constructed tobacco grading and storage shades at the centre.

This is aimed at equipping the students with the required practical skills in tobacco farming, handling and curing.
“Tobacco is one of the major economic anchors of this country and we saw it fit to equip farmers with the requisite skills for them to be viable.

“We want all tobacco farmers to embrace the latest farming technologies so that they can continue producing quality tobacco which will boost Zimbabwe’s forex earnings,” said Mr Makumbe.

Chaminuka VCT recently successfully hosted the oversubscribed Mashonaland Central Smart Agriculture Conference where delegates were impressed by the state-of-the-art facilities at the centre.