Zimbabwe: Tobacco Season Begins

Source from:  The Herald  06/26/2013

Tobacco growers have started planting seedbeds for the 2014 production season.

Irrigated tobacco seedbeds have germinated with some farmers already carrying out land preparation ahead of the beginning of planting in the fields in September.

Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union vice president Mr Johnson Mapira said farmers were concentrating on irrigating the seedbeds. "Farmers started sowing tobacco seedbeds on June 1 and are expected to plant on land from early September," he said.

Mr Mapira said although tobacco growers were used to the conventional method of preparing seedbeds, some were slowly switching to the float bed trays. "Some farmers are still relying on the old systems of preparing seedbeds but are no longer using methylbromide, which has been banned," he said.

Mr Mapira said the country was no longer using extremely dangerous chemicals as they were deemed hazardous to the environment.

He said farmers could learn the new technology of seedbed production at the Tobacco Research Board, which offers free lessons on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Although he could not give figures on the seedbed plantings, Mr Mapira confirmed an increase in production as tobacco has become a lucrative crop.

"Every season farmers are turning to tobacco. Some farmers have been discouraged by low prices being offered for other crops such as cotton and maize and have been turning to tobacco," he said. According to the latest Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board figures, 47 933 growers have registered to grow tobacco during the 2014 season. Enditem