The Sunday Mail
Kuda Bwititi
The Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) has tightened the screws to eliminate the side marketing of tobacco, after farmers were fleeced of more than US$20 million through illicit dealings by third-party suppliers during the last marketing season.
This money was expected to go directly into the farmers’ pockets, but through an intricate web of deceit and manipulation, the money fell into the hands of the third-party suppliers, who played the role of middlemen.
Over the years, these third-party suppliers have taken the lead in financing production, but have been accused of ensnaring local farmers into debts through contract farming.
The merchants offer farmers loans to pay for fertiliser, seed, labour, firewood for curing and even household food items under a contract growing scheme before recovering their funding, with interest terms, when the farmer delivers the crop.
Speaking to The Sunday Mail on Tuesday, TIMB spokesperson Ms Chelesani Moyo said all loopholes have been tightened this year to ensure that farmers are not fleeced of their hard-earned dues.
The new measures will see all tobacco contracting companies obliged to supply proof of inputs distributed to farmers, in the form of paid invoices or valid payment plans.
Furthermore, contractors now have an obligation to support at least a minimum package of inputs set at US$1 000 per hectare (ha) and US$4 000/ha for both small-scale and large-scale growers, respectively.
Under this system, growers who did not get a full package of inputs will be de-contracted by the TIMB.
Ms Moyo explained the new measures.
“TIMB and all contractors have signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoU) on contract farming that sets conditions and governs operations of all contractors.
“Last year an addendum on contract farming was added to the MoU clearly stating the minimum support package that every contractor should provide to a farmer who they contract.
“The minimum cost of inputs to be given should be US$1 000 and US$4 000 per hectare and for small scale farmers and commercial farmers, respectively.”
She said the TIMB had set aside US$60 million to improve local funding of tobacco.
“The funds will be accessed by individual growers and contractors for lending to contracted growers, auction floors for lending to auction floor growers.
“Beneficiaries of the fund will access working capital directly from the participating banks. At this point, we can say this fund can support 50 000 hectares with the potential of producing 60 million kilogrammes of tobacco as we move towards achieving the 2025 goal of producing 300 million kilogrammes of tobacco.”
Figures from the TIMB show that to date, 115 270 farmers have registered for the 2021/22 tobacco cropping season compared to 127 231 at the same time last year.
Although there are fewer farmers, Ms Moyo said the lower numbers reflect thorough vetting and verification processes that had been conducted by the TIMB for farmer registration and grower number renewal
“Many farmers have been tried and have fallen short, that is why we have less registered farmers. We place more pride in having fewer but legitimate tobacco growers whom we know will follow due diligence in all tobacco production processes and produce tobacco in quality ranges 1-3 by 2025
“As at 12 November 2021 we had 24 682 hectares of tobacco planted yet at the same time last year we only had 21 346 hectares planted. TIMB treasures quality farmers over quantity therefore we will continually improve our processes to retain genuine and legitimate farmers only
Zimbabwe Tobacco Association president, Mr George Seremwe, said the third party contractors had killed the viability of the tobacco grower
“These surrogate contracting companies were eating into tobacco farmers’ profit. We hope that these new measures will ensure that they are permanently removed from the tobacco marketing system.
***This story is published under the Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe Investigative Journalism Fund, with support from the European Union.
