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Edgar Vhera

Agriculture Specialist Writer

DRY land tobacco farmers have planted over 22 000 hectares with this year’s high seed sales and increased grower registrations all hinting at the possibility of achieving the country’s projected 300 million kilogrammes by 2025.

This comes on the backdrop of rising expectations for better prices in 2025, thanks to decreased production in some major world producing countries like Brazil.

Statistics from Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) show that there was a one percent increase in area planted from 22 333 hectares by November 1 last year to 22 462 in the comparable period this year.

Hectarage for irrigated tobacco has, however, slightly dropped from 16 136ha to 15 108ha while dry land area increased by 19 percent from 6 197ha to 7 354.

Mashonaland West province is leading with 6 209ha followed by Mashonaland Central on 5 836ha and Mashonaland East getting 5 652ha. Manicaland province is fourth with 4 759ha and lastly Midlands on six hectares.

Farmer registrations have also risen 11 percent from 105 803 in 2023 to the current 117 855 this year.

Tobacco seed sales have risen sharply by 29 percent from 1 004 086 grammes with potential to do 167 348ha to the current 1 292 399 grammes that can cover 215 400ha.

The largest area put under tobacco was the 146 000 hectares of 2019 while 2023 had a record-breaking output of 296 million kilogrammes.

Tobacco Farmers Union Trust (TFUT) president Mr Victor Mariranyika said all was in place for a promising season and farmers were busy in their fields.

“The tobacco season is progressing well with farmers at different stages as dictated by the availability of resources and amount of rainfall.

“Most parts of the country received showers far below 40 millilitres making it difficult for growers who wanted to do the rain fed crop to start planting,” the TFUT president said.

“So far, we have not received complaints from contracted farmers and my advice to contracted farmers is that they should read and understand contractual documents and sign for viable packages,” he said.

This comes as some growers were complaining of being charged inflated input prices by their contractors at the time of marketing their crop thereby reducing the profitability of the crop.

Zimbabwe Tobacco Growers Association (ZTGA) chairman, Mr George Seremwe concurred saying they had not recorded any challenges to date adding that the country was set for a record yield.

“The season is progressing very well in most areas and farmers are taking advantage of the rains to expedite planting,” he said.

A tobacco expert and Tobacco Farmer Talk (TFT) group administrator Mr Phineas Mukomberanwa recently said: “The global tobacco industry has entered an era of unprecedented shortages with a marked reduction in the availability of the crop worldwide from major traditional nations like Brazil, India, China, Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Zambia, which were affected by weather calamities. As the 2024/25 season approaches, the world will contend with potential implications of these shortages on supply, demand and pricing.”