Zimbabwe farmers marketing tobacco. The production of the crop has increased in recent years due to the land redistribution program., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
Research on land reform on
Tuesday, 18 June 2013 02:19
Elita Chikwati Agriculture Reporter
THE Tobacco Industry Development Support Institute (TIDSI) is in the process of carrying out research to verify the impact of the land reform programme on tobacco growing in the country. The major objective of the study is to critically assess developments in the tobacco sector from 2000 to date to provide relevant updated information for use by various stakeholders for academic, planning and policy making purposes.
The results would be useful to stakeholders that include farmers, Non Governmental Organisations and farmers’ unions among others. The TIDSI executive director, Mr Jeffrey Takawira, said the results of the research would be used to justify production of tobacco in Zimbabwe.
“The results will be used as evidence at regional and international forums to advance arguments that Zimbabwe is a tobacco dependent economy and as such should be allowed to grow the crop,” he said.
Mr Takawira said the study was motivated by the developments in the tobacco industry in relation to the contribution to the economy and the welfare of the farmer since 2000.
This would be in relation to key variables such as national output, export generation, employment creation and retention, and linkages with upstream and downstream industries.
The research proposal notes that tobacco performs well on less fertile soils and sometimes there were no better cash crops in most environments compared to tobacco.
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