A Female Tobacco Farmer’s story

Grace Gohori (41), a tobacco farmer at Alsace Farm in Beatrice started farming tobacco in 2007 and is one of the over 8000 women farming tobacco in Zimbabwe.

“My yield averaged 3,500 kilograms per hectare on my three hectare plot although the season was characterized by long dry spells, and this is up from about a 1,000 kilograms when I did not have the drip facility”,said Gohori.

“Drip irrigation improves quality and yield per hectare and more farmers, particularly women need to apply for this initiative offered by TIMB” Gohori added.

Gohori also uses the drip facility to water her vegetables, tomatoes, cabbages and onions which she sells in Mbare as well as export to Zambia.Gohori also has a butchery and poultry rearing project targeting the local market.

“Tobacco has transformed my life as I virtually had nothing when I started but now I have a truck that I use to ferry bales as well as horticultural produce to the market”, she said.

“Although my main focus is tobacco farming, as a farmer you cannot put all your eggs in one basket hence I have diversified into horticulture and this not only enables me to rotate my crops but increases my revenue base as well as support my tobacco farming activities. I cannot say I have made it yet but am surely on course” said Gohori.

She added : “As tobacco farmers we produce for the market and need to meet demand, hence we need to understand the market, for instance some buyers pay more for lemon styles while other pay better for mahogany styles. Time is also a factor as I attained $4.99 per kg at the beginning of the season but prices waned as the season progressed.”

Gohori encouraged women that have land to be productive and venture into tobacco farming as women already have patience to their favour, something she said is essential in tobacco production.

“Whatever men can do, women can do better. Women should learn to farm tobacco because it has good returns as long as one studies the market, does not take short cuts, is resilient and pays attention to detail as the crop needs monitoring and extra care so as to protect it from diseases” she added.

As a tobacco grower, Gohori said she encountered a number of challenges during the season; chief among them being financial constraints.

“For instance, hiring a tractor to plough or to ridge a hectare costs $100. I hope financial inclusion was not all talk and we will soon start seeing banks extending low interest loan facilities to us since we now have track records as tobacco farmers”, said Gohori.

“The whole idea is to manage costs and maximize on productivity hence to minimize drip irrigation fuel costs, we schedule our planting so that we benefit from the rains and do not use drip irrigation through and through. I use drip irrigation when the crop is showing signs of stress. We also intend to apply for energy efficient rocket barns scheme so as to reduce costs on curing fuel”, Gohori added on.

TIMB has been rolling out for two years both drip irrigation scheme as well as a rocket barn construction program targeting small scale tobacco farmers.

Gohori urged women to engage in economically emancipating tobacco farming and encouraged the generality of the population to desist from starting veld fires as they are not only counter productive but are a threat to the environment. 

For additional Information contact
TIMB on telephone numbers 08677004624/6 or 0772145166/9 or 0279-22082/21982 or 025-3439 or 067-24268/29246 or 0277-2700 or 064-7280 or 0271-6772 or Toll Free
Number 08006003 / 0731999999 or E-mail: info@timb.co.zw