Namibia: Tobacco Farm - What''s in It for Namibians?

Source from:  Namibian 07/29/2015

The Proposed tobacco farm in the Zambezi region of Namibia by Chinese company Namibia Oriental Tobacco cc has raised a lot of controversy.

The project is the brainchild of Swapo coordinator for Oshikoto region Armas Amukwiyu, who says he spent the last decade planning the project and scouting for investors until he convinced some Chinese that the investment in tobacco in Namibia was worth their while. He told The Namibian that besides tobacco, the project would grow maize.

The former minister of health, Richard Kamwi, was one of the staunchest opponents of the project. To him tobacco is a bad crop that should not be grown in Namibia and that smoking is bad news for Namibians. To him poison is poison, no matter how mild.

Job Amupanda of the Affirmative Repositioning movement came out guns blazing, criticising the project. He said clearing huge tracts of land to grow tobacco and a token maize crop when the majority of blacks were landless, was immoral and unjustifiable.

But in a twist of developments, the ministry of environment recently gave the project an environmental assessment clearance, affording it to take a giant step towards becoming a reality. The project now awaits authorisation from the agriculture ministry.

The environmental impact assessment submitted by Namibia Oriental Tobacco cc states that the primary purpose of the farm will be tobacco production, although maize will also be grown on a rotational basis in order to prevent or minimise the occurrence of tobacco-related pests and diseases.

In defence of the project, the Chinese ambassador to Namibia, Xin Shukang, said the project will mainly be for tobacco that will be shipped to the lucrative Chinese market and Namibians will benefit from skills training in the growing of tobacco.

It is ironic that at a time the country is facing a devastating drought that threatens its food security, top in people's mind is growing maize to control tobacco pests instead of feeding the nation.

Shukang says Namibians will also benefit in the same way that Zimbabwean small-scale farmers who grow tobacco for sale to the Chinese are doing.

"The tobacco projects in Zimbabwe are a great example because the farmers that side have earned good money," he was quoted in the media as saying.

That may be the case but the two farming scenarios are not the same.

The Zimbabweans (theoretically) own the farms on which they grow the tobacco. This means the tobacco crop that they grow belongs to the farmers and they sell it to the Chinese and make their money. What about Namibians?

According to media reports, the governor of Zambezi, Lawrence Sampofu, says the 10 000 hectares the Chinese company Namibia Oriental Tobacco CC wants will be leased to them by the Mafwe Traditional Authority.

He said the traditional authority had already given the land and they were waiting for the Chinese to start operations. The Chinese will then grow the tobacco and the crop will belong to them and they will ship it out of the country to China.

The only costs the company will incur are the royalties on the farm and the near slave wages the Chinese will most likely pay the farm workers.

Of course, the Chinese might transfer farming skills to Namibians but this will be to enable Namibians to grow more tobacco for them.

According to recent reports by the National Planning Commission, the largely rural northern regions of Kavango, Oshikoto, Zambezi, Kunene and Ohangwena are the poorest in the country, with some people living on less than N$12 a day.

These are the areas from where the envisaged tobacco farm will draw most of its labour force.

Besides the low wages, what else will be in it for these people? Perhaps only the maize they will grow at the farm in rotation with the tobacco crop as food rations.

The best way for the people of these regions to derive maximum benefit is to divide part of the farm into small units and allocate these to selected communal farmers who shall be trained on how to grow tobacco; if tobacco is what must be grown. The Chinese can grow their tobacco on the remainder of the farm.

The small-scale farmers can then grow the tobacco for Chinese on contract or sell the tobacco at auction floors.

Those who work at the Chinese farm for a set number of years should eventually be given their own land on which to start their own projects with the knowledge they acquired at the farm.

This way the communal farmers will be assured of earning a decent income from their sweat that will lift them from living on under N$12 a day and transform them into commercial farmers. The maize they grow to kill tobacco pests can be for their own consumption with any surplus sold to needy neighbours or to national silos.

While controversial, the farm project can be used as one way of eradicating poverty among rural Namibians in the Zambezi region in line with Vision 2030 objectives. Enditem