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Edgar Vhera Agriculture Specialist Writer

ALL signs on the ground are pointing towards a record tobacco hectarage in the upcoming 2023/24 tobacco season if the huge quantities of seed sold so far are planted.

Statistics released by the Tobacco Research Board (TRB) yesterday showed that farmers had procured 847, 21 kilogrammes of tobacco seed with potential to cover 169 442 hectares by August 8.

“As of August 8, TRB had sold 847, 21 kg of tobacco seed with the capacity to cover 169 442ha,” TRB public relations and communications officer Mr Tatenda Mugabe said.

The largest tobacco hectarage was recorded in 2019 when 146 000ha were planted. The final crop, livestock and fisheries assessment report (CLAFA 2) shows that last year 131 656ha were put under tobacco.

Meanwhile, stakeholders in the tobacco industry have revealed that both irrigated and dryland tobacco farmers were engaged in different field activities, as they moved towards transplanting seedlings from the seedbed to the fields.

The earliest date for irrigated tobacco transplanting onto fields is September 1 while that for dryland normally follows a month later.

Tobacco Farmers Union Trust (TFUT) president Mr Victor Mariranyika said it was now three weeks before the irrigated crop is transplanted and farmers were busy with land preparations.

“Farmers are putting final touches such as discing, ridging, fertilisation and chemical dressing of plant stations. At the same time there is the hardening of seedlings on seedbeds. Pre-and-post weed herbicides are being sprayed,” Mr Mariranyika said.

He said that preparations for the oncoming season were ongoing with farmers signing renewal contracts with their contractors.

Zimbabwe Tobacco Growers Association chairman Mr George Seremwe said both dryland and irrigated tobacco farmers were busy managing their seedlings and preparing their fields.

“Small-scale farmers who mostly do dryland production are busy preparing seeds for dryland while those who do irrigated tobacco were focussed on land preparation for planting their crop by September 1. Irrigated tobacco farmers are servicing equipment such as ridgers, hoes, bowsers and hosepipes need for tobacco planting and doing processes such as ridging and fumigating of fields,” Mr Seremwe said.

Tobacco Farmers Union Trust (TFUT) vice president Mr Edward Dune said farmers were balancing their cashflows, refurbishing capital equipment and undertaking staff training in machinery and irrigation scheduling.

Mr Dune said some seedlings were affected by frost this year resulting in a rise in demand for nap liners, which are short in supply and expensive.

“Aluminium irrigation pipes and tractor spare parts prices have also significantly increased in foreign currency terms as opposed to a decrease recently witnessed in input cost of products such as fertilisers and chemicals,” Mr Dune said.

The ongoing 2023 marketing season has seen 294 million kg of tobacco worth US$891 million being sold by Day 100.

This is a 44 percent increase in volume and 43 percent rise in value compared to the same period last year.

The average yield this season has risen to over two tonnes per hectare from 1, 7 tonnes per hectare the previous season.

The Tobacco Value Chain Transformation Plan that seeks to achieve a US$5 billion tobacco industry by 2025 through localisation of tobacco funding, increased production and productivity, value addition and beneficiation has since been operationalised.