Agriculture
Declining market prices forcing Malawi tobacco farmers to quit trade
December 03, 2020 / Brown Mdalla
Rainy season is finally here, the time farmers are usually busy in their gardens growing various types of crops, for sale and consumption. But in Malawi, the number of tobacco growers during this year’s season has drastically gone down.
Malawi, whose economy is agro based has relied on tobacco as the main revenue earner for many years but for some time, the industry has been going down drastically, something that has affected the country’s economy.
Commentators say anti-smoking lobby championed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and poor market prices for the leaf are the major factors affecting the local tobacco industry.
Tobacco Commission’s (TC) recent report revealed that the number of farmers who registered to grow the leaf during 2020-2021 season had gone down by 15 percent, the development the organization described as worrisome and retrogressive to the development of the industry.
The report explained that by September 30, 2020 only 45,000 farmers had registered to grow the green gold during 2020-2021 season, the figure which is lower compared with 53,000 farmers who registered in the previous season. TC extended the period to October 14, in a bid to woo more farmers and there was a slight improvement in the number of farmers who registered after the extension.
“The Commission extended registration and licensing period after realizing that the number of farmers who had registered previously was small. Extension of the period was done in a bid to entice more farmers for the exercise,” reads the report.
But some farmers have said, they are no longer interested in tobacco growing because the industry is no longer lucrative as it used to be previously, something they have majorly attributed to reduced market prices for the commodity. They have therefore said, instead of investing their energies in tobacco growing, they would invest it in the production of other crops that might benefit their families.
Farmer Hananiya Chimala of Mitundu in Lilongwe, said he has been in the industry for many years, but has never experienced the kind of nightmare they are facing these days. He said the many challenges faced have forced him to drop. He cited wretched market prices for the leaf as one of the major challenges faced.
“I have decided to quit tobacco farming because it is no longer paying me sufficiently as it used to be at the time I was joining. Generally, the industry started staggering soon after the World Health Organization (WHO) started the Anti-Smoking Lobby saying smoking is a health hazard,” said Chimala.
While Henderson Chinyama another farmer from Nathenje in the same district, accused buyers of favoring contract farmers than individuals, so he has decided to quit tobacco farming which he said is no longer reliable.
“I feel that we are cheated by our leaders, who cannot make solid decisions on tobacco pricing. Almost all the presidents we have had assured us that, they would do anything possible to improve the leaf prices but nothing is done to that effect so I am fed up with their rhetoric,” complained Chinyama.
Malawi realized K125 billion from the sales of 110 million Kilograms of the leaf in the just ended tobacco growing season.
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