Displaced Farmers Give Zambia a Record Tobacco Harvest

Source from:  The Daily News (Harare) Lusaka  03/10/2005

Runaway white commercial farmers from Zimbabwe who have settled in Zambia have managed to record an all-time high bumper harvest of tobacco in Zambia. According to the Tobacco Association of Zambia's executive director, Jewette Masinja, Zambia is set to harvest more than 52 million kilogrammes of the golden leaf, as compared to last year's national harvest of 14,3 million kilogrammes. In an interview with Daily News Online yesterday, Masinja said Zambia was set to earn US$83 million from the sale of the crop, up from US$26 million which it earned last year. This, he said, had been achieved after the country allowed distressed tobacco commercial farmers from Zimbabwe to work on large tracts of land which had been lying idle for years. "Fresh investments by the Zimbabwean farmers and the introduction of good agricultural practices by Zambian farmers who learnt it from their Zimbabwean counterparts has led to the rise in tobacco production over the past few years," he said. Zambia's tobacco production has for the past three years been gradually rising, with this year's crop reaching an all-time high. Last year's production figure of 14,3 million kilogrammes was a 321 percent jump from the previous year, according to official data from the Zambian government. According to Masinja, nearly half of this year's crop will be full flavour Virginia tobacco, while the other half will be burley. Nearly all of it will be exported to Europe. Distressed Zimbabwean farmers, running away from land grabs by the government, have significantly improved the agricultural production capabilities of a number of countries within the Southern African Development Community SADC and beyond. White farmers have settled well in Malawi, Mozambique and even Nigeria, where they have managed to prove their expertise in agricultural production. Ironically, Zimbabwe has suffered a decline in the production of tobacco, maize and other crops over the same period. This has been blamed on beneficiaries of the land reform programme failing to live up to expectations, either because they do not have the necessary funds and inputs or they are mere speculative holders of land with no intention of ever using it for farming. Last week President Robert Mugabe had a go at these "cellphone farmers". Enditem