Zimbabwe: Tobacco Farmers Aim High

Source from:  The Herald 03/23/2010

On November 15, 2009 Petros Hoga (not his real name) of Makwarimba Village in Hwedza made a decision that would, if carried out successfully, become the watershed of several other developmental projects. He had decided to grow tobacco, essentially the most rewarding conventional crop at the moment that had vastly transformed the lives of his neighbours within a season of adopting it. At the conclusion of last year's tobacco marketing season, Hoga had enviously watched as his neighbour to the east Thamsanqa Khumalo, completed building his four-roomed house whose construction had stopped at window level 10 years ago. Thamsanqa had not stopped there. He had gone on to buy a television setand radio, installed a satellite dish and bought a set of leather sofas as well. Now after supper every night, Hoga's children had easily fallen into a routine of rushing to Thamsanqa's place to watch the glut of entertaining channels accessible from the dish. In the mornings the children would talk excitedly and argue over some points in the different soaps, movies and adverts they would have seen the previous night. "And this was the motivation I needed. I also wanted my children to enjoy the same privileges as Thamsanqa's. "So I simply had to join the tobacco band wagon and see how it would reward me for I have big plans after the marketing season," he said. One morning he visited Thamsanqa to seek advice. "Tell me, what is required for one to join the tobacco growing multitudes of farmers that are currently making lots of money while we stand on the sidelines watching," he had asked. The latter explained to him that the process was started by securing a grower's number either from the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board offices at the auction floors or from teams deployed and roaming all over the country's different provinces. "The other key requirements are the land on which to grow the crop, basic resources like fertilisers and chemicals, infrastructure like barns, woodlots for fuel, labour and the seedlings," Thamsanqa had explained. And since he had made the decision a bit late, Hoga had the unenviable task of rushing to hire a tractor for tillage and ridge making on the land that his grandfather left him, which had been lying fallow for about two decades. He had mobilised resources and secured seedlings speedily and within a very short space of time his tobacco crop on dry land was growing healthily. Hoga would approach extension officers and established growers for assistance on the technical requirements of the crop and faithfully followed their advice and instructions. And as fate would have it other crops were ravaged by the dry spell that hit most parts of the country at the start of the season. But the tobacco survived. Hoga successfully reaped and cured the crop incredibly amassing 20 bales from the three hectares he had planted for a start. All that remains now is for him to secure the services of a reliable transport operator to ferry the baled tobacco to the auction floors. Transport is one service that has always been elusive to the farmers in this remote corner of the Mashonaland East province. "We cart our produce to the gravel road that passes near our village but we have to contend with crossing a stream before getting to our destination. "And the only reliable transport that is there for us is a Mazda B2200 that is obviously very small for the task, which ends up creating more trips than budgeted for," Hoga explained. Rosemary Mugore of Makonza Village, in the Goto area of Hwedza said her intention this year was to see the family buy a kombi and complete the building of a bigger house that is currently under construction. "Inotopauya kombi pano gore rino tombozadza family yose totenderera tozodzoka toita mabiko,"(We will definitely buy a kombi and bring it here this year. "We will take every family member on a joyride before returning for celebrations) she boasted. She said next season they intended to grow the crop on a larger hectarage and would therefore start their preparations early to avoid the precedence they set this year when they had to rush through everything after making a last minute decision to grow the crop. "We are starting preparations for next season as soon as we auction this current crop and have everything in place before the start of the season," she said. Her nephew Talent said he would not allow the success of this season to get into his head as he had seen once-prosperous growers sliding into oblivion after mismanaging the cash they got after selling the gold leaf in recent seasons. "There are some farmers who become famed for waking up the following day sleeping along Willowvale Road with all the money from selling their crop stolen or spent boozing with ladies at the Colour Purple joint. "And the next thing is they do not have anything to start preparations for a fresh outing and consequently they opt out of tobacco farming," he said. Talent's fears mirror what has been happening to cotton farmers in the Sanyati area of Mashonaland West province over the years where men would disappear from their homes for more than three months immediately after selling the white gold. They would only return to their homes after exhausting all their earnings, which had in some cases caused a breakdown of some marriages or a clash with contractors who, would be following up on their contractual agreements with the farmers. Last season many tobacco farmers managed to furnish their homes lavishly after selling their produce and this has spurred others into joining the programme. At this time of the year truck loads with different household goods and agricultural inputs were a common sight on most roads leading from Harare to the various corners of the country where the different farmers ply their trade. Tobacco has been credited with allowing farmers to take Harare to the rural areas as most of them have since bought satellite dishes, cell phones, television sets, radios, sofas and in some cases cars. Others have used the money to build better houses or even start projects for more income generation and improve their livelihoods. "I am planning on starting a project with part of the money that will come from the sale of this crop later this year. "I am not yet sure what exactly I will do but I definitely need to invest it in something that will keep on bringing in some income," Talent Mugore said. While productive farmers are planning, the less organised may be seriously mooting the idea of marrying more wives or even scout for the hottest beer spots in their different localities or far. Enditem