THE tobacco marketing season is in its third week and as expected, there is a hive of activity at the auction floors.
As always, the issue of pricing takes centre stage.
Some farmers are smiling all the way to the bank while for others, it is all tears; what they are getting is not what they expected.
One farmer whom I know who could, as I write, be enjoying his earnings after getting a fair price on his first delivery is the late Cde Alexander Kanengoni.
Life for him was cut short on Tuesday.
It was on Monday when he happily shared the news with us, after a bit of probing though, that his first batch of tobacco had been priced between US$4,50 and US$5 per kilogramme.
He surely had made fair returns and was looking forward to the same price ranges for his remaining crop.
We teased him as always: “Can we join you in spending the cash.”
“Asi Shingirirai ndofanira kumupawo US$50 nekuti anombondinyora kuti ndorima fodya,” he said.
However, Cde Kanengoni being Cde Kanengoni found a way to ‘silence’ us and get away with it.
Speak about agriculture, this was one of the issues he spoke about passionately as a farmer.
Every year during this time when the golden leaf goes on the market, he would remind me not to forget to highlight the plight of growers whom he felt were not being given a fair deal by buyers.
Even when he got favourable returns, he did not forget his peers who were not happy with the prices they got.
He understood, as everyone keenly following the tobacco production sector, that resettled farmers still needed time to grasp the dynamics surrounding the production and marketing of the crop.
Unlike the marketing of other cash crops, there are strict guidelines that have to be followed when marketing tobacco.
Many growers, some fairly new in the field, are yet to learn them all.
Last week Cde Kanengoni called me to his office and asked me to verify the penalty a farmer had to pay for the late renewal of a growers’ number.
He was my boss, but yes I laughed with him over the matter and I jokingly accussed him for not reading my stories.
“If you had read my stories you would have met the deadline to renew,” I said to him.
To his defence, he said he knew about the deadline, “Ehee wakazvinyora handiti,” he said.
He had just been busy and missed the deadline.
I remember when I was assigned to the agriculture desk, I knew little about tobacco production and its marketing.
Who to better educate me on the processes than a tobacco grower?
I took my questions to him and patient as he was, he would not turn me away even if I asked him the same question over and over again.
That was Cde Kanengoni.
Now I have grasped the concept, thanks to Cde Kanengoni who simplified matters for me.
Not only was he passionate about the tobacco crop, but all other crops and sub-sectors of agriculture.
He grew other crops such as maize and beans and he was also into livestock production.
One thing I learnt from him was to appreciate the resettled farmers and their contribution to the economy.
Resettled farmers have been castigated and labelled failures, but this was not the case in his eyes.
He would always make it a point that from time-to-time, I visit and write success stories of resettled farmers.
It was through all these visits and one-on-one interviews with the farmers I got to appreciate his point.
Every year he would ensure that I go for a crop assessment in all provinces.
The aim was for us to tell the real story that was on the ground.
“Your stories must be backed by facts and a lot of research,” Cde Kanengoni would always say.
And indeed, one cannot write about the state of crops while sitting in the newsroom.
I had to go out there and that was one trip guaranteed no matter the circumstances.
Cde Kanengoni had my back covered when it came to agriculture.
Of course, every reporter will testify to being fully backed by him, he fully supported us all.
Resettled farmers, despite the challenges they are facing, continue to strive to produce something for the nation.
It is that good picture and the efforts by the farmers which Cde Kanengoni wanted us to tell the world.
He was interested in ensuring the plight of the farmers was brought to the fore.
Whenever squabbles between maize growers and the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) ensued, he ensured I followed them closely and wrote about them.
Even the plight of the cotton farmers; he sympathised with them and wanted the nation to know what they were going through.
The Land Reform Programme brought good things for the indigenes and that is the message we had to share.
You will be solely missed DJ.