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Obert Chifamba

Agri-Insight

THE 2021 tobacco marketing season looks certain to start any day now, once a few pending issues on the welfare of farmers and the smooth rolling out of the programme are finalised.

According to the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB), the process of engagement among all stakeholders started some time ago and what is happening now will certainly put a lid to the process and pave the way for the opening of the season.

It is good to note that everything that is happening behind the scenes is meant to make the farmers’ lives easy once the season begins, which makes it crucial for the farmers to reciprocate by tying up all loose ends on those issues they are expected to attend to before they come to the floors to sell their produce.

Farmers need to make sure they are registered with TIMB and have growers’ numbers before they go to the floors with their produce.

This may sound cumbersome, but over the years many farmers have pitched up at the floors when they are not registered expecting to sell their tobacco.

In a way, such situations have tended to cause unnecessary delays to the marketing process, as contingency measures to help the affected individuals would have to be worked out to avoid sending them away.

Farmers are also expected to have submitted their production estimates before they go to the floors.

They should always work hand in hand with their extension officers for assistance in that regard.

It is exciting to note that most contractors now provide extension officers to work with the farmers they would have contracted, which makes it easy for the farmers to get guidance as most of them easily develop good working relations with extension agents.

It is also prudent for tobacco farmers to make sure they remain alert to any announcements on sales floors and most importantly, the payment modalities either from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) or TIMB so that they go to the floors with a general idea on how they will be getting paid. This will help remove the element of rude surprises in the event that the expectations they would have been nursing unaware of the developments on the ground do not come to pass.

This year, for instance, the farmers will be getting 60 percent of their earnings in foreign currency, with the other 40 percent being liquidated to local currency.

As they wait for the conclusion of the preparatory activities currently in motion, farmers also need to make sure their banking details are current and that their accounts are functional so that once they sell their produce, their earnings are deposited into their accounts where they can access cash without hassle.

In the past, some farmers have failed to access their earnings in time as they would be required to open bank accounts for payments to be effected.

With everything in place, the farmers must also not forget the ‘deliver today and sell tomorrow’ policy that requires them to book sales in advance so that they bring their produce a day before selling to cut on the time they will spend before being served.

This year’s marketing season, like last year’s, is also happening under the shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic, which makes it crucial for farmers to spend the least possible time at the floors in line with World Health Organisation regulations on containing the pandemic.

It will make sense for farmers to send representatives to do the selling and avoid coming in big numbers to the floors, as big gatherings have been known to provide the ideal conditions for the spread of Covid-19.

Those few who come to the floors must also remember to observe all the prescribed Covid-19 containment measures to make sure the floors do not become a nucleus of fresh waves of the virus.

Being organised on the part of the farmer will allow processes to flow smoothly and fast so that there will be no people spending days waiting to be served, which will in turn cause numbers to grow, which is not encouraged under the current drive to exterminate coronavirus.

Farmers also need to be aware of the stop orders against their sales proceeds so that they do not include money meant for their loan repayments in their planning processes.

They can always check with their contractor or the TIMB to find out how the deductions will be made and eliminate chances of them feeling cheated somewhere along the process.

It is not a secret that many farmers tend to develop a feeling that they are being ripped off by their contractors or other service providers every year, but this feeling usually results from lack of information, which they can easily acquire by consulting those that know how certain processes work.

This makes it necessary for farmers to seek guidance from their extension officers or the regulatory board, TIMB, each time something they do not understand happens in the industry since tobacco is their source of income whose marketing must not be compromised in any way if they are to benefit from their toil.

There have been reports of unscrupulous buyers going about buying tobacco from farmers in dire need of cash, which will obviously put some strain on their relations with contractors if they sell tobacco produced under contract arrangements to another buyer.

Of course, such eventualities are not good for the future of the tobacco industry, hence the only way out of such dilemmas is for both parties involved in the contract arrangement to honour their parts of the bargain.

In some cases, farmers are pushed to act in the way they do by fly-by-night contractors bent on ripping them off through falsifying agreement details and delivering inputs way after the season has started, yet expecting the farmer to pay back in full.

The long and short of it, however, is that as TIMB and other stakeholders are wrapping up preparations for the marketing season, contracted farmers must not be tempted to sell produce to the prowling unscrupulous buyers, lest they land themselves in serious legal battles, which in most cases they lose.