Major challenge for Zimbabwe

Small-scale commercial farmers are loosely defined as indigenous commercial farms. These holdings were first developed by the Government of Rhodesia between 1931 and 1961 in an effort to reduce congestion in communal areas reserved for the indigenous population. There are about 9 000 holdings in the SSC sector, occupying a total of 1.2 million hectares. Half of these farms are under conditional freehold title, while others are under a long-term lease with an option to buy. Although not as advanced as LSC growers, most SSC farmers still produce at a reasonably high level and enjoy good access to basic equipment, including ox ploughs and carts, hand sprayers, sufficient barn space for curing tobacco, and baling equipment. Smallholder farmers are only marginally involved in the tobacco sector.
Although there are roughly eight times as many smallholder tobacco growers (about 16 000 in total) as commercial farmers, these account for less than 1.5 percent of all smallholder households. Certainly, the importance of tobacco as a high profit crop with fully developed market outlets cannot be overlooked, but it should also be noted that maize, cotton and groundnut are all more important for smallholder farmers in most locations. One of the biggest effects which any shrinking of tobacco markets would have on smallholder farmers is likely to be the loss of remittances from workers employed on large farms, rather than the direct effect on smallholder farm enterprise income. Finding suitable diversification options for smallholder tobacco growers is still a major challenge for Zimbabwe, but not on the scale of having to work with farmers in all locations.
Three main types of tobacco are grown in Zimbabwe, namely flue-cured, burley and oriental tobacco. Of these, flue-cured is by far the most important and is generally produced in the better rainfall areas to the north and east of Harare. The northern regions produce a Virginia type of tobacco, whereas growers in the east produce a thicker, slower developing type used for blended cigarettes. Burley tobacco is grown mainly in the northeast and in the Eastern Highlands and is predominately a smallholder crop. These areas have better rainfall and longer periods of the high relative humidity needed for curing. Oriental tobacco accounts for less than 1 percent of total output by mass and is grown mainly by small-scale producers in Masvingo Province. Details of flue-cured and burley production by farm sector for the past two years are given are given in 7.2.