In a bid to empower local tobacco farmers, the company has set up an interaction forum – the first of its kind in Zimbabwe.
The Tobacco Growers Forum, will see the coming together of farmers and buyers, together with farmers’ unions and insurance companies in a bid to find common ground.
“This is a move by a business that has passion for tobacco and we are happy that we as farmers will manage to interact with other stakeholders,” said one farmer, Ozious Ndombo of Magunje.
The move will also see the auction floor teaming up with other industry stakeholders to conduct outreach meetings with in tobacco growing areas.
The Floor’s Public Manager, Alex Zokoto, said this would enable farmers to meet their service providers and understand each other better.
"This should help improve service delivery and boost information dissemination,” said Zokoto.
He said the company would soon be visiting framers in to offer technical assistance – a move welcomed by the more inexperienced farmers.
"Farmers will also discuss marketing issues while as BTF we will get to know what they expect when they come to the floors with their produce.
"We will also take some time to make farm visits in the near future so that we see what they are doing and where necessary give them technical assistance to produce a good crop,” he said.
Since the expulsion of commercial farmers by the Mugabe regime through the racially discriminatory land redistribution exercise since the late 1990s, the majority of the tobacco growers in Zimbabwe are now inexperienced communal farmers who are expected to benefit immensely on the Tobacco Growers’ Forum.
Post published in: Agriculture