Zimbabwe: Call for Agric Firms to Assist Tobacco Farmers

Source from:  The Herald (Harare) New Ziana. 22 May 2007 05/24/2007

AGRICULTURAL companies have been urged to come up with special facilities through which tobacco growers without bank accounts can access inputs and cash. Zimbabwe Tobacco Growers Trust chairman Mr Wilfanos Mashingaidze said the majority of smallholder farmers did not have bank accounts and were finding it difficult to cash their cheques. "These farmers are now behind schedule in terms of preparations for the coming season," Mr Mashingaidze said. "They can't procure inputs such as seed, fertilizer, fumigation equipment and the fumigants because all this requires cash. The growers have no collateral and nobody is keen to cencash their cheques." Most growers, he said, were now turning to the black market to change their cheques where some were being ripped off. Others were being forced to buy non-agricultural products from traders who accept to cash their cheques, a development that was retrogressive as most growers preferred to plough back their cash into growing the crop. Mr Mashingaidze urged input suppliers to arrange with their banks for growers to buy inputs with their cheques and then be paid the balance by the bank. "Let the growers present their input requirements to a company like Zimbabwe Fertilizer Company and then be given a voucher which they can take to the company's bank. The bank should then deduct the money on the voucher and pay the farmer his balance." Mr Mashingaidze said growers were aiming to double tobacco production in the coming season but indicated that this could only be achieved if farmers accessed inputs early. He said the favourable prices obtaining at the auction floors coupled with a robust support price should spur tobacco production to new levels. "With the good prices this year, most smallholder growers are aiming to increase the hectarage from one to two," Mr Mashingaidze said. Tobacco production, which had taken a nosedive in the past few years, has started to rebound due to increased support to growers among other factors. An estimated 80 million kilogrammes of the "golden leaf" is expected to go under the hammer this year, up from 55 million kg produced last year. Despite the downturn, tobacco remains one of Zimbabwe's top foreign currency earners. Enditem