The Zimbabwean economy is agro-based and
tobacco farming is traditionally the backbone of the economy followed by
mining. The past decade has seen the emergence of young new farmers who
have been empowered through the land reform programme launched in 2000
by President Robert Mugabe.
The controversial land reform programme is beginning to pay dividends
as evidenced by the bumper tobacco harvests being delivered to the
country's auction floors. This season tobacco sales have generated
US$300 million in 44 marketing days. The tobacco industry used to be
dominated by white commercial farmers whilst the indigenous black people
worked as labourers on the commercial farms where they were paid low
wages. However, things have changed, as Zimbabwean young men have become
masters on their own farms, thanks to the government's empowerment
programme.
President Mugabe launched the land reform programme in Makoni
District, Manicaland province, which is a renowned tobacco region. It
was given a fresh impetus in January this year when the Tobacco Industry
Marketing Board (TIMB) decentralised its services to the district. So
local farmers no longer travel to Harare as auction floors have been
opened in Rusape town where farmers sell their tobacco and get paid on
the same day. A young farmer, Berry Phiri, 23, says after failing to
score good points at the GCE O' Level, he joined his father on the farm
which they "invaded"10 years ago.
"We came here as a group of 50 families to occupy the farm, our
elders drove the previous white farmer away, I was very young then but
our elders - some of whom are war veterans - told us to be brave and
never to surrender as we were going to be the new owners of the farm. We
listened and obeyed the comrades' command and up to now we have settled
and are our own masters growing tobacco," explained the young man.
Phiri's father was allocated five hectares of land to farm and
another two hectares to build temporal shelters. His family uses three
hectares to grow tobacco because there are only four members in the
family who are able to work on the land. Berry says since he started
growing tobacco he has managed to upgrade his life. "When I sell my
tobacco I make sure that I give my younger brother, who is still at
school, some money for school fees. These days we never run out of money
like in the previous years before we came to this farm," says Berry.
Brighton Kubocha, 21, is another young farmer who grows tobacco in
the backyard of his rural home at Tandi village, which is 20km from the
Rusape auction floors. Brighton says he once worked for six months at a
tobacco commercial farm where he got the basic experience to grow
tobacco."I left school after completing Form Three because my mother
could not afford to send me further than that. I was left with no choice
but look for a job. I got employed at a large white man's farm in 2011
and worked in the tobacco fields doing the hard work such as spraying
the crop with chemicals and at times plucking the mature leaves the
whole day," explained Brighton. He decided to leave and grow the crop
behind his uncle's house using the meagre savings he made to buy inputs
like fertiliser and seed. "I used my uncle's land as well as his oxen to
plough the piece of land then bought the other materials such as seed
and fertilizer with the little money I got from the commercial farmer to
get started and since then, my project has been doing very well," he
said.
Thousands of young Zimbabwean youths like Berry and Brighton have
realised that the solution to unemployment in the country is to go back
to the land and work hard to earn a living growing tobacco. (SPA)
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