Zimbabwe: Boka Targets Contract Farming

Source from:  The Herald  04/16/2013

BOKA Tobacco Floors, the country's largest auction floor, has set sights on contract farming, targeting three million kilogrammes during the next planting season.

"It is a phased programme that we are starting and we will improve as we go," BTF operations director Mr Moses Bias said in Harare last week.

He was speaking on the sidelines of the launch of "Most Valuable Grower", a new programme which seeks to encourage commercial farmers to use Boka Tobacco Floors as their preferred auction floor.

Currently, the bulk of farmers selling tobacco at Boka are small-scale growers.

Of the 22 million kg of tobacco sold through Boka, only 1 percent came from commercial farmers.

"So, under this programme, we want to bring on board large-scale farmers and make them understand that the Boka brand is not just for small-scale farmers. We would like to build confidence in them," said Mr Bias.

He said the company had started an identification process for potential growers, funded under the company's contract farming scheme. But he would not give a budget.

Mr Bias also said the company would intensify its growers' forums, a platform for interaction between farmers and tobacco stakeholders, such as banks, insurance companies, buyers, research institutions as well as Government.

"This will help us educate small-scale farmers on good farming and grading practices," he said.

"We want them to improve production and quality as well."

The agrarian reform programme saw many black farmers taking up tobacco production, previously a preserve of a few white commercial growers. But many of them still lack adequate knowledge on growing the crop.

The programme has also brought negative effects on the environment, resulting in the wanton cutting down of trees, which they use for curing the crop.

As of Thursday last week, about 66 million kg valued at US$246 million had been delivered.

The Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board expects the tobacco crop deliveries to reach 170 million kg this year.

At its peak, Zimbabwe produced about 210 million kg in 2000. New small-scale farmers are leading the rebound, the bulk of them having benefited from the land reform. Enditem