Zimbabwe: Tobacco Farmers Still Have a Lot to Learn

Source from:  The Herald  03/21/2014

The nation is oozing with optimism fuelled by prospects of a bumper crop harvest. The agricultural sector has this season fired on all cylinders, and for a nation emerging from seasons of poor harvests, the good news should bring back smiles on the faces of Zimbabweans. It is not in dispute that in the last couple of seasons the economy has caught a cold because the agricultural sector was sneezing. It was limping because of erratic rainfall patterns that the country experienced which saw some areas experiencing drought and total crop failure. But this season, God seems to have favoured Zimbabwe with above normal rains that have turned the vast tracts of land into greenbelts of crops.

Cereal crops, including maize, are expected to perform very well basing on the hectarage, which has risen to 2,2 million hectares this season against last season's 1,9 million hectares. Given that inputs were availed on time to farmers, it is anticipated that the increase in hectarage will translate into high production.

Production of tobacco is also expected to increase from last season's 166 million kg to around 190 million kg this season, a big jump considering that only a few years into the land reform, farmers were producing less than 100 million kg.

There has been a lot of excitement in the tobacco sector because of the massive addition of growers from last season. The number of registered tobacco growers has grown from 65 000 last season to 85 000 this season, with more communal farmers venturing into the golden leaf production.

It is indeed, pleasing to note that more and more people are turning to tobacco production, a crop that used to be a preserve of white former commercial farmers. However, what is disturbing is the quality of tobacco that some of our farmers, especially, communal, are delivering to the auction floors.

A visit on Tuesday to two auction floors, Boka Tobacco Floor and Tobacco Sales Floor, was a huge eye opener. The quality of some of the tobacco was pathetic as reflected in the low prices that it fetched on auction.

Because of the money in tobacco, every farmer wants to grow the golden leaf. Those that were growing cotton last season and were disappointed by the low cotton producer prices, have shifted to tobacco but don't have the faintest knowledge on the proper management of the crop, from seedlings preparation, production, grading, processing and presentation at the auction floors. Most are unaware of the best practices demanded in tobacco production.

Is grading and curing of tobacco being done the right way? Curing is about achieving a balance and not just about drying it but also colouring it. And are these being done the right way? We have seen some farmers curing their tobacco in huts or kitchens and obviously this way of doing it in improper barns impacts negatively on crop quality.

There is no way a farmer producing between 600kg per hectare and 1 200kg/ha, which is below national average, can be expected to produce a high quality crop. There is always a correlation between crop yield and quality and that should be taken seriously. It is clear farmers can only achieve low yields of up to 1 200 kg/ha when they have not applied themselves fully to the production of the crop in terms of ensuring the crop is adequately fed with all inputs that it requires to give high yield and to then expect high quality would be expecting too much from nothing.

Indeed, if the quality is questionable, the crop fetches poorly at the auction floors as the international buyers are not buying from the Zimbabwean market but international market where the issue of quality is given serious attention.

It is important to understand that only 4 percent of the crop produced by farmers is sold on the local market with 96 percent destined for the export market and this is why issues of quality will remain important. It means our entire crop is depended on the international market.

For farmers to ensure quality crop, they must not produce less than between 3 000 kg/ha and 3 500kg/ha. Again a yield level of above 3 000 kg/ha indicates that serious attention was given to the production of the crop in terms of attention to detail and that the whole production process up to curing was done to the book. It means the crop was properly fed to achieve high yield and naturally, its quality cannot be questioned.

Having said this, there is no reason why farmers should cry foul over prices they perceive to be low since it is the quality of the crop that determines the price that buyers would pay, not forgetting that prices at the floors are dictated by the market not by the auction floors which are simply facilities of trade.

While there has been some high quality crop at the auction floors fetching between us$4,50/kg and us$5,00/kg, there has also been some very poor quality crop being bought for between us$0,60/kg and us$1,80/kg. Again, it is all about quality and the faster our farmers get to appreciate the importance of quality, the better for our industry and the farmers themselves in that more money would then go into their pockets and use tobacco as a springboard for agricultural recovery.

Seasoned growers know that the lower leaves or the primings generally fetch low prices because of the poor quality and that prices usually start firming as they move to the mid and upper leaf. So our farmers need to place greater emphasis on producing high quality tobacco that fetches them more money at the auction floors. There is no short-cut to producing such a crop other than adhering to the best practices of tobacco production. It means some of our farmers need to be trained on the entire production process and also made to understand how the auction system works to avoid perennial problems of farmers thinking they are being ripped off by buyers.

There are some farmers who are doing exceptionally well, producing a high quality crop that easily meets the needs of international buyers, which means it can be done. Our farmers can do it, but let agronomy specialists do their work on the farms. Enditem