Curing Problems to Cost Farmers Billions

Source from:  The Herald (Harare) December 23, 2005  01/04/2006

TOBACCO worth billions of dollars is going to waste on farms in the Headlands area owing to the persistent unavailability of coal for curing. Farmers from the area who visited The Herald on Wednesday said the situation was depressing and time was being wasted while they waited for coal deliveries. Although tobacco is Zimbabwe's major foreign currency earner, farmers always face challenges in its production and pricing on the floors. Mr Willard Chieza of Headlands said though he was granted a loan by one of the commercial banks for the procurement of coal, it was taking longer than expected to arrive. "We are now confused as to what could be the problem and we should have now been finishing off curing and getting into the production of other crops," Mr Chieza said. Another farmer said many farmers would lose the bulk of their tobacco if the relevant authorities do not seriously consider their plight. Agriculture Minister Cde Joseph Made said farmers have raised the concerns with his ministry and efforts were made to address the situation. "The tobacco will definitely go to waste if measures are not urgently taken. We are told the coal is being delivered but surprisingly or mysteriously it is not reaching our farmers," Cde Made said. He added that his ministry is considering taking officials from Hwange Colliery Company and the Transport and Communications Ministries to see how unavailability of coal is affecting the tobacco farmers had heavily invested in. Transport and Communications Minister Cde Christopher Mushohwe yesterday said reports he was getting from his officials were that there was no coal in Hwange. Hwange Colliery management last week said they were producing enough coal to cater for all sectors nationwide and blamed the National Railways of Zimbabwe for not providing enough wagons to ferry the coal to various stations. Dr Godfrey Dzinomwa, managing director of Hwange Colliery, said 90 wagons of coal were dispatched to various areas on Wednesday and Thursday. "There are challenges with tobacco farmers that include their late ordering of the commodity. We are, however, working on supplying them with coal and some of it is in transit right now," Dr Dzinomwa said. Enditem