Zimbabwe: Tobacco Curing And Deforestation

Source from:  The Herald 03/19/2012

Startling claims featuring wide disparities have been made about the extent to which felling wood for tobacco curing has caused deforestation. And with estimates suggesting that flue cured tobacco constitutes more than 64 percent of the world's total tobacco output, the claims have even been bolstered. For Zimbabwe, the world's fourth largest producer of the golden leaf, the number of registered growers has gone beyond 70 000 with more than 80 percent of them belonging to the smallholder category that relies heavily on wood for curing. In a survey carried out at the country's four auction floors, the majority of farmers who talked to The Herald conceded that they were solely relying on wood for curing their tobacco. But it is this common confession by all the farmers that they do not have alternative means of curing the golden leaf besides wood that has literally set the stage for a protracted debate whether it is feasible for them to leave firewood for other options or not. It is estimated that over 46 000 hectares of forests were destroyed while 1,38 million cubic metres of firewood were burnt to cure part of the 127 million kilogrammes of tobacco delivered to the auction floors last year. This season, the figures are most likely to have surged as the numbers of farmers growing tobacco have also grown. The other options - coal and electricity have evidently remained out of the reach of the majority of the farmers as most of them cited financial challenges for buying coal and installing electricity on their farms. In fact, most of the farmers indicated that even if they were to get coal, they would still need electricity to operate the fans that feed oxygen into the barns so the coal option remains a dream silhouetted in the distant horizon. At the conclusion of the land reform programme, a small number of farmers ventured into tobacco farming -- essentially as an experiment but the rich pickings at the conclusion of the marketing season were enough to trigger an influx of more farmers into the industry. And so did the pressure on the forests, as most of them do not have exotic woodlots from where to draw firewood. On the other hand the country's export earnings also have increased amid growing concern by environmentalists and other sectors of the economy that the tobacco industry had set in motion a vicious circle that would lead to a total annihilation of forests. The Forestry Commission, for instance, squarely puts the blame for deforestation on farmers cutting wood to cure tobacco. This has seen the parastatal proposing a Statutory Instrument provision under the Tobacco Wood Energy Programme where farmers will be forced to reconsider their tobacco options. As part of the proposal farmers may consider the option of switching to varieties such as burley tobacco that unlike flue cured tobacco do not have heavy demands for fuel wood. "The Forestry Commission, with its mandate of facilitating sustainable forest management is proposing the most favourable option which would be that farmers establish their own sustainable source of wood energy in the form of fast growing exotic trees which are renewable compared to indigenous varieties. "The drive towards this has already started with companies like Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board distributing Eucalyptus seeds to all registered tobacco growers so that they can establish woodlots for tobacco curing purposes. "The statutory instrument will only come in to regulate this process and we are in the last stages of deliberation to have this statutory instrument in place," Forestry Commission Information and Communications manager Violet Makoto said. TIMB chief executive, Dr Andrew Matibiri said the board also took an initiative with stakeholders to reduce deforestation by farmers producing tobacco. "As a board we are very concerned with the amount of trees being destroyed by farmers. It is unfortunate that many small scale farmers do not have capacity to install electricity," he said. Dr Matibiri, however, said trees that were being cut for tobacco curing were few as compared to the amount destroyed during clearing of land for farming purposes. He said all stakeholders had agreed to encourage farmers to establish their own woodlots where they will harvest trees for tobacco curing. "The Tobacco Research Board has five million seedlings of gum trees to distribute for free to tobacco growers who will be buying seed. "We also have abundant coal supplies which can be used for tobacco curing. The only problem is the movement of the commodity from Hwange Colliery to tobacco growing districts," he said. Dr Matibiri also said the industry was now looking at alternative barns that will require less or even no wood for tobacco curing. This, he said, included barns that rely on coal without the use of electricity fans. "There are also mechanisms to package coal into small quantities so that small-scale farmers will be able to buy affordable amounts. TIMB has also provided funds to communal farmers' leadership to be used to procure seed for the establishment of gum tree woodlots. So far the board has funded the project in Makoni, Chikomba, Mazowe and Zvimba among other areas. TIMB is also encouraging farmers to spare indigenous trees when cutting wood for fuel but to plant exotic trees. A number of tobacco growers said they have since established woodlots while some have already started harvesting the trees for fuel. Agritex officers are spearheading the project and campaigns are being carried out at field days. Each year nearly 600 million trees are destroyed globally to provide fuel to dry tobacco. Put in another way one tree is destroyed for every 300 cigarettes. Tobacco curing requires 11.4 million tonnes of solid wood annually. Tobacco curing is the act of drying tobacco in readiness for the market and for most developing countries this means that acres of trees are chopped down and burned in order to dry the tobacco leaf. In Southern Africa alone an estimated 200 000 hectares of woodlands are cut annually to support tobacco farming. This accounts for 12 percent of deforestation in the region. Enditem