LIVINGSTONE MARUFU
Zimbabwe’s research body,Kutsaga Research, is rolling out tobacco climate-smart varieties in response to impending El Nino phenomenon anticipated during the 2023/2024 summer cropping season.
El Nino is a natural climate pattern borne out of unusually warm waters in the eastern Pacific that causes poor rainfall.
In response to this impending phenomenon, Kutsaga is developing drought-tolerant varieties after extensive research.
The development was revealed by Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development deputy minister Davison Marapira (pictured).
“…. I am happy to see that research work on tobacco has not suffered as evidenced by the fact that new genetics continue to be developed.
At this point, I want to challenge the Kutsaga to develop varieties with 6,000 to 8,000 kg per ha yield potential but maintaining the quality of already existing genetics.
This will be a game-changer for the industry and Zimbabwe,” Marapira told Business Times.
This year, Zimbabwe has recorded the highest tobacco production in its history.
Sales currently stands at 294m kg kilograms,surpassing the previous record of 259m kg attained in the 2019 season.
He said Kutsaga developed and successfully tested more efficient tobacco curing barns that reduce firewood use by 50% and, reduce the curing cycle from seven to eight days to five to six days, without compromising on tobacco quality.
“While there has been a fair rate of adoption of these barns, I want to urge all stakeholders to encourage growers to adopt this technology more aggressively. If all small-scale farmers adopted these more efficient curing barns, deforestation will be reduced by half and enable Zimbabwe to plant more trees to ensure sustainable tobacco production,” Marapira said.
Kutsaga was established in 1950 under the Tobacco Research Act (Chapter 18:21) and its mandate is to direct, control and carry out tobacco research in Zimbabwe.
There have been threats to tobacco grown in Zimbabwe.
In response to threats from the World Health Organization (WHO) to forbid the cultivation of the golden leaf, Kutsaga has been developing alternative crops.
Kutsaga research CEO Frank Magama said the country takes the WHO threats seriously and has started venturing into alternative crops.
Magama said : “We are alive to the potential ban of the golden leaf crop. We are not working on tobacco alone but we are working around tobacco and alternatives. We are carrying out a number of projects here which gives us a significant top line and the proceeds from various ventures will go into tobacco research itself or research into alternatives.”
