Tobacco, a favoured yet costly crop

Source from:  Monitor 07/04/2007

Although tobacco is widely grown and generate a high revenue in West Nile, poverty continues to hound many communities mainly because cultivation of the crop requires many inputs and doesn’t do much to ensure food security West Nile is perhaps one of Uganda's best kept secrets. Hidden away in the fresh green folds of the River Nile tributaries, the region made up of Pakwach, Arua, Koboko, Yumbe, Nebbi, Adjumani, Maracha, Ayivu, Vurra and Madi Okollo has some of that grasping beauty that makes you ask - where has this been? The region is perhaps most popular for its tobacco growing culture and its warm people. However, its best asset - tobacco, has been its worst enemy, eating away the region's previously endowed natural resources, leaving the people spell bound in poverty and backwardness. The thick natural vegetation that partially covered Murchison Falls national park down to the plains in Pakwach and Arua has slowly been destroyed as a desperate population searches for wood fuel to cure tobacco and burn charcoal for sell to earn a living. Driving through Arua, Maracha, Koboko, Yumbe, Terego and Moyo, the only sign of modern times are the towering tobacco curing burns that stand out in homesteads surrounded by hundreds of grass-thatched mud huts. At one point on the trip, we had to ask what the people of West Nile eat, since the only gardens that were fresh and well cultivated were hundreds of acres of tobacco. According to the Member of Parliament for Terego in Nyadri district, Kasiano Wadri, West Nile Region alone produced 10 million kilogrammes of tobacco. A kilo of high grade cured tobacco costs Shs1,800 according to the locals. The average price for tobacco is Shs1,500, which means for a good price, the area fetched Shs18b last year alone and at a throw away price, it must have walked away with Shs15b because all the tobacco was bought. This income however is not reflected in the way of life here. So where did the money from the tobacco go? "The cultivation of tobacco is labour intensive and destructive to the environment as it requires wood fuel for its curing but we have no alternative," Wadri said. Farmers harvest tobacco. To fight household poverty and promote food security, farmers are advised to grow other crops like rice and cassava and rear animals rather than depend solely on tobacco growing. Net photo Recently, the vice president, Professor Gilbert Bukenya was in West Nile to mobilise and sensitise people about the prosperity for all programme. Shocked by the levels of poverty in the region, he urged farmers to diversify their crops for both income earning and food security. What farmers should do "I don't believe poor people owning small acreages of land should grow tobacco. This crop must be left for large-scale farmers who can afford to pay loans. This is not a poor man's crop. How can they say they earn so much money and yet there is so much poverty around?" he asked. Bukenya wants poor households and small landholder farmers to grow fast-maturing crops that can be sold and also used as a food resource. "Rice grows very well in this region. I have been told by some farmers that even after they harvest the tobacco, they can grow rice immediately after and be able to get some food to eat. This region is also known for the best organic honey in the world. Why can't we support our people to harvest honey and grow these crops?" But the Member of Parliament for Maracha in Nyadri district Alex Onzima says since tobacco is the main cash crop in the region, the government should intervene and subsidise the farmers. "It is the most expensive crop to grow and it's labour intensive. People have gone to school here because of tobacco but they also incur many loans. In the end, they get peanuts. In Zimbabwe, farmers benefit more. The government here should subsidise farmers if they are to benefit from this crop," Onzima said. West Nile has some of the best honey with flavours from the numerous moringa trees. Its proximity to the vast water resource from the River Nile makes it a viable project to explore. However, because of the destruction of the natural vegetation in search of firewood, most families that rear wild bees have lately been frustrated by strange small dog-like animals called bee bargers. The animals which used to survive on wild bees in the natural forests have now turned to domestic hives as most of their habitat has been destroyed. "We used to harvest honey three times a year and would get 60 kilos of honey per hive. We sell each kilo at Shs6,000. However, our hives have been invaded by the bee bargers that eat both the honey and the bees," Ms Phoebe Awere of Aluyi sub-county in Nebbi district said. Awere who is an established bee keeper however, didn't have bees in most of her hives, something she attributes to lack of access to water. While Bukenya's push for alternative cost effective crops for both income and food security has been highly embraced in the West Nile Region, access to high quality seeds and the Friesian cows remains a challenge. Few options Asraf Noha, 32, of Lodora village in Lodora sub-county, Koboko district says he owns two acres of land and has been growing tobacco for the last three years. "Here, we all grow tobacco, they give us loans to buy the seeds and we don't have to look for the market or even transport the tobacco. Tobacco firms always come for it, so we don't spend much," he says. However, Noha spends much more than he cares to add up. In three years, he has only managed to buy one traditional cow. When he heard about the Friesian cow, he was crestfallen. "It is true, the local cow does not give milk as much as the exotic ones. But exotic cows are very expensive. I can't afford that even if I desperately want it. Most of the money I get, I spend on fertilisers, spraying insecticides and maintaining the barn. The problem is we don't have access to other crops that we can make money from. Cassava is a recent crop and it's grown mainly because of the market in Southern Sudan. The rice seeds are not available, the only crop with a ready market is tobacco," he said. The vice president's theory was simple. Tobacco is labour intensive and takes nine months to harvest. Rice takes three months and can be eaten and sold at the same time. Bees come as naturally as the weather allows. "All you need is a hive that you hang up in a tree to trap the bees. You can have three activities on a two-acre piece of land. Rear chicken for eggs, or bees that don't even take space, have a fish pond, keep a Friesian cow or grow a quick maturing crop like rice," he said. According to him, incomes from any two of these activities can be saved in a microfinance association. If the farmers are in a group, this money can then help them access credit to improve their production or acquire a Friesian cow. He too was concerned about the massive deforestation for charcoal burning which could degrade the environmental. Already, changing weather patterns have led to serious water scarcity for food production. Local leaders say the harsh weather has led to long droughts and forced people to resort to charcoal burning to earn a living, destroying part of the natural vegetation of Murchison Falls National Park in the process. According to the Save the Children UK report, chronic poverty is deeply entrenched with approximately 50 percent of the population having an income in the range of Shs500,000 a year. "To put this in context, if you live on $1 a day as a minimum required per person to be above the poverty line, 50 percent of the households in this zone comprising 6-8 persons live on less than a dollar a day. Even after monetising all the food consumed from own cultivation (approximately Shs400,000), the entire household still has to live on about $1.5 per day (about Shs2,500). The possibilities of getting out of these conditions are constrained by the circle of poverty brought about by the precarious nature of their livelihoods," it said. Bukenya who is promoting the fight against household poverty through improving basic incomes and food security, says Uganda is naturally gifted and people only need the correct information to enable them make the right decisions.