The Sunday Mail
Tobacco farmers this year recorded gross average earnings surpassing the poverty datum line per individual from the sale of over 200 million kg of the crop, highlighting how Government’s land reforms have lifted standards of living for ordinary Zimbabweans.
Comparatively, tobacco farmers this year raked in more than the average monthly salaries paid in both the public and private sectors.
According to official figures, 106 439 growers registered by the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board earned around US$650 million, translating into an average US$541 gross earnings per month per farmer for the next 12 months. The official PDL is US$510 for a household of five as at February 2014.
Civil servants who include teachers, nurses and members of the uniformed forces who are in grade D1 and above earn US$419, while those in the E5 grade such as deputy directors and chief accountants net US$508.
Tobacco growers’ earnings and the crop volumes are expected to increase by the time mop-up sales close around September.
Analysts say the statistics reflect how the land reform programme has yielded success in empowering previously disadvantaged people.
Women count among the major beneficiaries with figures from TIMB showing an estimated 39,5 percent of registered small-scale tobacco growers were female. Last season’s production was the highest since the beginning of the Fast-Track Land Reform Programme in 2000, and were the second-highest in the history of tobacco farming in Zimbabwe.
White former commercial farmers achieved their best seasons’ production in 2000 when they sold 236 million kg of the golden leaf. Last season, small-scale farmers accounted for nearly half of tobacco growers, competing well with A2 and commercial growers.
The number of tobacco farmers growers has been rising exponentially in recent years. Analyst say the boom in tobacco earnings and the expected bumper maize crop harvest reflect well on Government’s five-year economic plan, Zim-Asset, which identifies agriculture as a major pillar of economic revival through the Food Security and Nutrition Cluster.
Agriculture accounts for around 20 percent to Zimbabwe’s GDP, 40 percent of exports, and supplies 63 percent of raw materials for agro-industries.
However, Zimbabwe Farmers Union second vice president Mr Berean Mukwende said there was still room for improvement.
“More still needs to be done so that our farmers can actually reach that stage of living comfortably,” said Mr Mukwende. “The analysis (of farmer’s average gross earnings) does not factor in production costs which have continued to rise year after year.
“For instance farmers are calling for more competitive prices at the auction floors as well as access to inputs including new technologies which will help increase yield per hectare.
“But the good thing is that our farmers are not dependent on tobacco alone, they also farm maize and engage in winter cropping which boosts their overall income.”
Apart from tobacco, small-holders also grow soya beans and rear livestock.
The agriculture sector is the country’s biggest employer accounting for 43 percent of the 5,7 million people employed in micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.
