via Is tobacco going the way of cotton? March 17, 2014 NewsDay Editorial
The land reform programme,under which 4 000 white commercial farmers were removed from their properties and replaced by hundreds of thousands of new black farmers, has 14 years on been described as a success story in some sections of the media. Government has also touted it as an unqualified success.
This is mainly on the strength of the growth in tobacco farming.
Most new farmers have over the years reaped huge rewards at the tobacco auction floors as the golden leaf fetched thousands of dollars for them. Most of these farmers saw their lives transformed almost overnight from poverty to relative wealth. Stories abound of how some of these farmers were able to build modern homes in place of their thatched huts; and even afforded themselves such luxuries as motor vehicles, something unheard off barely a decade ago.
But it would seem something has gone desperately wrong with the crop, which is this year selling at laughable prices of as low as $0,60 a kg.
Many farmers have been angered by these prices and feel cheated by the system. They allege chicanery in the manner their tobacco is being bought. They suspect crooks are buying their crop at such lows prices so that they can resell it later at much higher prices.
But Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) chief executive Dr Andrew Matibiri says there is no such trickery, only that buyers at the auction floors were now more concerned with quality rather than quantity. He says investigations are ongoing into allegations that unscrupulous middlemen are buying tobacco from the farms, thereby prejudicing farmers of lots of money.
But the anger shown by the new farmers points to something drastic happening in the tobacco farming sector. Almost every day riot police have to quell discontent as the farmers threaten to riot demanding higher prices.
It is very likely tobacco is going the way of cotton. Cotton used to be referred to as the “white gold”. It was the cash crop of choice for thousands of peasant farmers, particularly in Gokwe, Sanyati and other rather dry areas where it thrived better than any other crop.
But now almost all cotton farmers, from small-scale to large-scale, have shunned the crop because it has become unrewarding. In 2012 it fetched $0,35 a kg when farmers expected to sell it at $1,50. Huge losses were incurred. The farmers have since switched to other crops like soyabean and maize.
Last week tobacco farmers interviewed vowed to move away from tobacco alleging daylight robbery in the pricing. In the euphoria engendered by the high prices of the past few years, no one warned the new farmers on the volatility of prices in the commodities sector, a sector in which prices cannot be fixed by government intervention without dire consequences.
Government, through the TIMB and other agencies, should begin to educate the new farmers on all the matrices that go with cash-crop farming so that they are under no illusion of the vagaries of commodity pricing.
COMMENTS
Its all about quality vanhuwee, all this tobacco is being cured using firewood which is now being depleted and obviously the tobacco is not drying as it should leading to these problems of low prices. This was always clear for everyone to see. Our famers needs electricity and decent coal deliveries to be able to produce quality stuff that sells well on the market. Can Zanu deliver this? I dont think so.
Shame
Didn’t the chaotic farm thingy kill the goose that lays the golden egg. All those experienced tobacco famers could have been left with land and co-opted in to teach the new farmers but you see we threw the baby out with the bath water. Nothing is never enough for covetousness is it? Greed! Avarice! we reap what we sow! An unchangeable spiritual law.
Give me an example of farmers that ever did that with their employees or partners…Not many. Hence throwing the baby with the bathwater
As I said it before tobacco is a dying crop due to its unpopularity around the world due to its negative health effects.I am happy that its popularity is declining quickly,this will force our farmers to grow better crops like maize to feed the nation instead of concentrating on money first.Let the Chinese grow their own tobacco instead of the rice if they want it.
World tobacco consumption is rising because of rising demand in third world countries and the far east. cigarette manufacturers are making ever greater profits. They do however require consistent quality and untrained farmers cannot deliver this.
The lazy grow tobacco, for quick profits. You cannot eat tobacco, and so Zimbabwe starves.
The Rhodesian farmer grew 1/4 tobacco, 1/4 maize, 1/4 cotton or legumes and 1/4 livestock feed.
That’s why the dispossessed white farmers succeeded, where these cell-phone farmers today, fail.
No intellect, just a place to park the Mercedes SUV weekends.
Until intelligent, trained people take back agriculture, mining, industry, commerce and Government, Zimbabwe is doomed!
This is 21st century its not the 1980 s
The Indigenous trees to dry this crop are just about all cut down…quickly grow some fast growing alien things, like a Gum & Wattle hybrid (that will fast deplete the water table and become invasive )so we can grow a crop that kills people…..mmmmm. OK then. Well this is Zimbabwe so yes, go ahead….our new masters the Chinese need a cheap cigarette.