Pinning hopes on contract tobacco farming income

Maria Tembo, 42, cannot believe it that the two maize mills, vehicle, four hectares of land, household property and other things she owed as recently as 2021 are all gone.

What pains her the most is that these, and other items, were proceeds of tobacco generated under the Integrated Production System (IPS).

Tembo has been contracted to Alliance One Tobacco Limited since the 2012-13 tobacco growing season.

“By 2021, I had reaped the full benefits of tobacco farming under IPS, the evidence being that I had a vehicle, two maize mills, farmland, among other things. In the first place, I joined tobacco farming under IPS because I was tired of hunger and poverty, such that I was able to, through tobacco farming, undergo a positive transformation.

“However, in 2021, some villagers started accusing me, probably envious of my property, of practising witchcraft, something I know nothing about. They, then, destroyed all my property, setting things I valued ablaze and leaving me with literally nothing. I was hopeless and heart-broken, especially because there was no element of truth in the accusations they were levelling against me,” Tembo said.

That happened in Zungwala Village, which is under Inkosi Mtwalo, in Mzimba District and, in trying to sail past those painful memories, Tembo and husband Emmanuel Mvula have since relocated to a place near Ekwendeni, where they have rented a piece of land and are back to tobacco farming under IPS.

“I decided to rise from the ashes and restart tobacco farming under the contract arrangement in the 2022-23 growing season. Apart from renting pieces of land, I have rented a house. I do not want that painful experience to leave me miserable forever. I am pinning my hopes on contract farming. What is making me more hopeful is a new technology called poly-potting. I believe that, in no time, I will be back on my feet and possibly exceed past glory because IPS gives one that assurance of stability.

“The good thing about poly-potting is that the seedling survival rate when they [seedlings] are transferred from the nursery to the tobacco field is high. In addition, water consumption is low as the plastic tubes we put seedlings in conserve water. One is also able to move the seedlings from sites where the weather is adverse to locations where the seedlings can be saved from damage,” Tembo, who cultivates tobacco as part of a family venture, said.

Poly-potting is a farming technology in which farmers transplant tobacco seedlings from the nursery to the field using plastic tubes.

And, true to her words, she produced between 40 and 42 bales of tobacco under IPS last growing season and, slowly but surely, she is crawling back to the good, old days.

At Ekwendeni 1 Scheme, again in Mzimba District, farmer Ajison Gama has another comeback story.

In his case, though, he did not suffer property damage due to other community members’ ill will; he simply quit farming under IPS because “some people thought that I was being favoured by officials, an allegation that was unfounded. I, therefore, decided to have a break from IPS under Alliance One Tobacco Limited”.

As things panned out, Gama—who embraced IPS in 2012— found himself in the wilderness of uncertainty, as prospects of producing quality tobacco and selling it at a good price at the auction floors could not be guaranteed.

In addition, he was on his own, as he could not get proper supervision from experts that tobacco buyers send to contracted farmers in a quest to produce quality tobacco— and in the right quantities.

“I found myself in trouble because I struggled to buy fertiliser on my own. I also lost out on advice from leaf technicians, both of which had a negative bearing on tobacco production. During the years I was doing things on my own, after parting ways with Alliance One, I could apply two bags of fertiliser on one acre, which also negatively impacted production.

“That is why I decided to rejoin IPS under Alliance One in the 2023-24 tobacco growing season. The leaf technicians have been very helpful, showing me the advantage of cultivating tobacco using live barns and poly-potting technology. The future is bright again,” Gama, who was born in 1970 and ably provides for his two wives and five children using tobacco proceeds, indicated.

He stressed that no one can hook him off the poly-potting technology.

“Poly-potting is transformative because seedlings do not require a lot of water in the nursery. In my case, I used to water seedlings using 15 canes when there was a dry spell late last year and earlier this year and all the seedlings survived,” said Gama, who has cultivated tobacco on one hectare under IPS and another hectare as part of extended farming, meaning that he is buying all the inputs alone.

As for William Ngwira, who cultivates tobacco in Chikhazika Village, Mzimba District, the fruits of poly-potting are there for all to see.

“By using the necessary technology, notably poly-potting, and following leaf technicians’ advice, I have bought goats, pigs, vehicles and maintained six workers on the payroll, thereby advancing the government’s cause of job creation.

“In addition, everyone in the village knows that child labour is a ‘no, no’ for me, as that is against recommended labour practices,” Ngwira, who has, this growing season, planted flue-cured tobacco on two hectares and barley on two other hectares, pointed out.

He added that although he has been under IPS for more than 10 years, he has become more assured of success after embracing poly-potting.

“It [poly-potting] has really turned out to be a miraculous technology,” Ngwira emphasised, somehow regretful that the technology did not come a century ago.

But such is the enthusiasm of tobacco farmers under IPS that, if their wishes were to come true at the market this year, it can only be a good song they will sing; a song whose refrain will, surely, have something on poly-potting.

Meanwhile, Alliance One Tobacco Limited Corporate Affairs Officer Ben Kawonga has said they are happy with the way farmers have welcomed poly-potting technology.

“Farmers are now appreciating the benefits of poly-potting technology. All we want is for the seedlings’ survival rate to improve and for farmers to enjoy the full benefits of farming under IPS.

“On our part, we will continue providing resources such as wood [for flue-cured tobacco farmers], fertiliser, groundnuts and maize seedlings to them so that while they are cultivating tobacco, they should also be food secure at home,” Kawonga said.