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Buyers short-change tobacco farmers

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IN 2012, attracted by the huge returns that her counterparts growing tobacco on a small-scale were making, Matepatepa farmer Eneres Gunda joined the bandwagon.
She did not want to be left behind so she became a tobacco farmer.
Successes recorded in the tobacco sector have led to a majority of farmers preferring the cash-rich crop.
Locally-produced tobacco has remained popular on the international market despite spirited efforts by the West to tarnish the image of indigenous farmers who are now the chief producers of the crop.
Tobacco production before the Land Reform Programme was a preserve of white commercial farmers.
While cotton and wheat producers cried foul and were driven away from the crops as a result of poor prices, tobacco producers have thrived.
Farmers adhering to best practices in tobacco production had every reason to smile all the way to the bank.
So lucrative is the sector that in a season, a tobacco farmer with a good crop under a big hectarage can afford to build a house, furnish it, buy a vehicle and still have enough funds to prepare for the next season.
It has been chronicled time and again by many a farmer.
The above prospects are what drew Gunda to take up tobacco farming, but sadly, three seasons down the line, she has been frustrated by the goings on in the sector and she has decided to abandon producing the crop.
Over the past two seasons, it has become common to see farmers’ up-in-arms with buyers protesting prices offered for the golden leaf.
Farmers have argued that prices being offered are not viable, while buyers insist the prices are in tandem with the quality of the crop delivered.
Current prices are demoralising farmers.
Coupled with other factors like changing weather patterns, the issue of prices has negatively affected the once promising and growing sector.
Production levels rose from a low of 48,8 million kg in 2008 to 123,5 million kg in 2011.
Backed by the increase in growers, production increased in 2012 to 132,5 million kg and 144 million kg in 2013.
In 2014, some 216 million kg valued at US$685 million was produced, but last year figures dropped to 198 million kg, earning the country US$586 million.
Is the production of the golden leaf fast losing its lustre?
Are buyers of the crop in the process of killing the goose that lays the golden egg?
And are farmers not doing a good job in producing a quality leaf?
Gunda said buyers were doing a disservice to farmers and soon, there would be no small-scale farmers producing the crop.
According to the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board, 72 000 new growers registered in 2014, but in 2015, 56 000 new growers registered.
“I have resolved that this season I will not be growing any tobacco because the prices I got are not pleasing and I will not even be able to go back to the farm even if I want to,” Gunda told The Patriot.
“I brought in five bales and I got total earnings of US$50.
“I am yet to pay for transport and I was hoping I would be able to pay those still grading the crop yet to be delivered, but with the money I got, it is impossible.
“I have weighed my options and realised it is important that I abandon tobacco production.”
Guruve farmer Tafadzwa Chigarirwa who has been producing the golden leaf for the past three years concurred with Gunda that buyers were short-changing the farmers.
“With the prices being offered, one will not even make a profit, let alone be able to buy inputs for the next season and this means one thing, we have to try out new crops that are far from tobacco production,” Chigarirwa said.
“If the prices improve, we will certainly continue to produce the crop because we are committed to ensuring that the land we have is put to good use.
“It is surprising that the prices offered inside the auction floors are lower than those offered by the ‘bogus’ buyers outside.”
Allegations abound buyers are conniving to deliberately offer the farmers low prices and then re-sale the crop at much higher prices.
Tobacco farmers are now faced with the same predicament as cotton producers who were not making any profits from their crop, but with the ginners reaping huge returns from their efforts.
Another farmer, Laiza Chiwara, said there was need for urgent intervention to ‘save’ the sector from impending demise.
“As farmers we are committed and over the years, we have tried to learn the ropes when it comes to production and marketing of the crop, but it seems the buyers are only concerned with making money at our expense,” she said.
“We need each other for the sector to grow so they should ensure we are motivated to keep producing the crop.
“They tell us our quality is poor, but we read that other countries continue to buy our crop.
“Surely if the quality is poor, countries such as Brazil and South Africa would be shunning our crop.”
Tobacco contributes 20 percent of the gross domestic product.
The sector accounts for 40 percent of exports and supplies 63 percent of raw materials for agro industries.
The country exports 98 percent of semi-finished tobacco products, with the rest being consumed locally.
If much is not done to find common ground for stakeholders in the sector, production levels may continue to go down.

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