Tobacco farmer deserves respect

Reports that tobacco farmers are yet to be paid for the 2021/2022 season despite delivering the much needed golden leaf stands as a red flag for the country that has the crop as the fourth highest foreign currency earner.

The 2022 tobacco marketing season ended on October 21 with 212,711,370kg of the golden leaf having been sold at contract and auction floors up from 211,100,219 last year.

This year’s golden leaf sales raked in US$650,308,534 up from US$589,573,827 realised last year.

The Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) said despite a stellar season, some farmers have not been paid for the 2021/2022 and this clearly will affect preparations for the 2022/23 season.

This heavily impacts on production. The appetite in growing the golden leaf will be affected. This will have a bearing on the production of the golden leaf, a danger to a country claiming to be clamoring for greater productivity to move out of foreign currency challenges.

In the past, tobacco was the top forex earner but has been on a decline attributed to the unfavorable policies such as the unsustainable retention threshold. The inaction by those who are supposed to act borders on neglect.

Unlike small scale miners   that retain 100% of their proceeds, tobacco farmers retain 75% and the remainder in local currency. The monetary authorities had said the farmers could buy the foreign currency from the auction system. That facility has not been utilised as it bars those that owe contractors.

Farmers argue that the cost of production has gone up worsened by the supply chain disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and fertiliser shortages due to the Russia-Ukraine war. All these have piled more miseries on farmers that toil throughout the year.

There are calls for the retention to be increased in the interim so that farmers are able to clear their debts to contractors.

The TIMB said it was working to ensure that farmers are paid their dues casting a pall the funding for the upcoming season at a time merchants are owed huge sums of money by the farmers they contracted.

The situation has been worsened by the absence of local funding of the golden leaf which has left farmers at the mercy of contractors.

Despite promises by the government to fund the growing of the golden leaf with a kitty of US$60m, nothing has happened on that front, showing its lack of seriousness in the growing of the golden leaf.

To salvage something out of a frustrating season, side marketing has been growing at a faster pace than the authority can manage.

Regulators will struggle to fight the scourge in the absence of an enabling environment which promotes the growing of tobacco. Small scale farmers have no access to banks as financial institutions are reluctant to offer loans as they do not have collateral. The 99-year leases have failed to offer comfort to banks to extend loans. This leaves farmers at the mercy of contractors who continue undercutting farmers.

A conducive environment is the way out of this crisis.

Something has to be done as soon as possible in case the golden leaf loses its lustre.