Farmers have bought 684 670 grams of seed, enough to plant 114 112 hectares

TOBACCO seed sales for the 2015/2016 season have declined by 34 percent, indicating that the country could register a decline in area planted that could affect output.
Seed sales released by the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board show that farmers had bought 684 670 grams of seed from the Tobacco Research Board and the Zimbabwe Tobacco Seed Association, enough to plant 114 112 hectares compared to over one million grams bought in the previous season which was enough to plant 172 814 hectares.
Projections are that the 2015/2016 season may register a decline in yields; last year, the country sold 199 million kilogrammes of tobacco valued at US$586 million. This was also a decline from the 2014 sales of 216 million kg worth US$685 million.
During the 2014/15 marketing season, most tobacco growers complained about low prices while the merchants argued the crop was of poor quality. Farmers described it as one of the toughest years in recent years. Drought and floods affected the quantity and quality of the crop. The crop lacked the flavour and aroma associated with flue cured crop.
The season, as a result, saw farmers protesting against poor prices offered at the floors on the first day.
The industry had projected production of between 185 and 220 million kg, a figure later revised downwards.
Since 2009, tobacco has become an important smallholder cash crop with production increasing in the communal areas as farmers abandoned maize production. However, the low producer prices experienced last season have forced farmers to abandon the crop and look for alternatives.
With an average price of US$3,17 per kilogramme in 2014, tobacco production was highly lucrative. However, as the prices declined in 2015 to an average price of US$243 per kilogramme, resulting in a decline in yield per hectare due to extreme weather patterns experienced during the same year, earnings declined while farmers were left burdened and unable to pay back loans.
Bulawayo South legislator, Eddie Cross, said the inability by buyers to pay viable prices led to 80 percent of the small scale tobacco farmers being unable to pay back their loans.
Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union president, Abdul Nyathi, also said the 2014/15 season was not an easy period for tobacco farmers especially the small holder farmers as the producer prices were lower than the cost of production, making the business unviable for them.
“The prices at the auction floors were a huge disappointed for farmers such that many failed to go back to the fields and plant tobacco. So they shifted to other crops that are more manageable unlike tobacco, which is a specialised crop.
“For those who had invested in infrastructure, we urge them to go for training to learn more about tobacco management and not give up on the crop. For tobacco growers, it is about the quality of the leaf and not the quantity produced; they need training in the processes of management involved in tobacco growing,” Nyathi said.
New registrations for the 2015/16 season indicate a variance of -90,6 percent from 14 711 growers last year to 7 717 growers this year. In total, there are 56 314 growers registered for the 2015/16 season as compared to 72 580 growers who had registered in the corresponding period in the prior year.
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