Tobacco farmers petition Govt

10 May, 2020 - 00:05 0 Views
Tobacco farmers petition Govt This season’s tobacco achieved a 295 million kilogramme figure, the highest in its 198-year history of production

The Sunday Mail

Sunday Mail Reporter

THE Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union (ZFU) is lobbying Government to remove some regulations introduced by the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) for the 2020 marketing season, which are being described as overly restrictive.

Small-scale tobacco farmers argue that some regulations were disempowering them.

ZFU has since approached the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement, TIMB and the Transport Association of Zimbabwe.

Farmers are particularly aggrieved by TIMB’s decision not to license transporters whose vehicles have a net vehicle mass (NVM) below seven tonnes.

Those who have been affected have been forced to hire other transporters who are reportedly charging an arm and a leg for their services.

In addition, farmers are reluctant to entrust their tobacco with individuals who might ostensibly want to represent them at the auction floors.

They claim that while this rule was necessary to ease congestion at the auction floors and prevent the spread of Covid-19, it might create room for them to be duped.

ZFU director Mr Paul Zakaria told The Sunday Mail that the farmers’ grievances deserve to be heard.

“It should not be the number of vehicles that bother authorities at the floors, but the number of people,” said Mr Zakaria.

“The issues they (farmers) raise are valid. Some of them invested in their own vehicles to avoid transport costs and now they are being told to use these other operators.”

Mr Zakaria said farmers were tired of being fleeced.

“They should be allowed to use their vehicles. As long as they have booked . . . there is no need for how they bring their product because this unnecessarily increases farmers’ costs.

“The reason why they invested in their own vehicles is because they were tired of being fleeced by transporters. Transporters just charge anything and they will get their money after the sales,” said Mr Zakaria.

TIMB chief executive officer Dr Andrew Matibiri said all the concerns were being considered.

“I can confirm that indeed we have heard the complaints from the farmers and the matter is being considered,” he said.

Some transporters are reportedly charging US$10 per bale, a fee farmers say is extortionate.

Speaking from her farm in Chegutu, founder president of the Zimbabwe Indigenous Women Farmers’ Association Trust Ms Depinah Nkomo said most farmers are smallholder farmers who owned two-tonne trucks.

“Rural and A1 farmers, among other small-scale producers of crops, are the ones responsible for the massive comeback of the tobacco industry over the years. But no one is looking out for us. We are being abused,” said Ms Nkomo.

She accused middlemen for lobbying for the TIMB regulations.

“Our Government does not want us to suffer. This is the work of middlemen. They want us to hire their trucks. But what will we be left with after paying these ridiculous amounts?” she fumed.

Mr Isaac Manhambo, a farmer from Mashonaland East Province, said farmers would rather be present when their tobacco is being sold.

“We are small-scale farmers. This is all we have. We have spent many days and nights tending to this crop. We would rather be present, but that is not possible because of Covid-19.

“This means we cannot escort our produce and neither can we be there during the price-determination process. After toiling so hard, we are now just donating our hard work because our money is now going into other people’s pockets,” said Mr Manhambo.

Another farmer, Elton Kurera, said sending a single person to represent up to 50 farmers leaves room for corrupt contractors and middlemen to undercut prices through collusion.

“While a lot has been written about the highest price fetched at the auction floors, nothing has been said about the average price. It is the average price that will inform absentee farmers what to expect from sale of their produce, even if they are not there physically.”

The 2020 tobacco marketing season opened on April 29 with farmers and buyers being asked to follow strict guidelines.

So far, deliveries and prices have been steadily going up.

Tobacco is one of the country’s top foreign currency earners.

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