Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB)

Tuesday, 28 February 2017

Preparing for the 2017 marketing season.

Yvonne Mutava

Tobacco farmers are encouraged to make all necessary preparations as the 2017 marketing season draws close. Growers should take note that bookings will be starting on March 1, 2017 and deliveries to selling points beginning on March 6,2017.

The actual selling of tobacco commences on March 15,2017.

Therefore, it is prudent for growers of the golden leaf to familiarize themselves with the selling procedures.

Firstly, tobacco growers producing for auction will be required to sell their entire produce through an auction floor of their choice. The three licensed floors for 2017 tobacco marketing season are Boka Tobacco Floor (BTF), Tobacco Sales Floor (TSF) and Premier Tobacco Floor (PTF).

The practice of “deliver today and sell tomorrow” will apply at all auction floors. This implies that booking a date in the Booking and Delivery system means that sales will be held on the following day and growers will not be able to deliver before making the requisite booking.

Growers will be allowed to re-book (whether they have delivered or not) for the next available day.

The previous allowances for block allocations or space reservations will not be available this season and the booking system will operate for the full season.

Bookings will be recorded by grower’s registration number and each of the floors will be responsible for administering and controlling bookings made to their floor. This should be done in accordance with the procedures set out by the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB).

Tobacco laid for sale without a valid TIMB registration or booking will attract a fine payable by the floor. Additionally, any purchases or sales of tobacco outside the agreed framework will also attract a fine.

All authorized selling points are linked to the TIMB booking and registration system and are also on the e-marketing platform.

Growers are encouraged to present for sale, tobacco that is neatly packed as possible in order to maximize revenue.

As a result, tied leaf, straight laid loose leaf, clean graded strips or clean graded scrap are forms that a grower should not mix.

There are specific types of bales which are expected to be on sale, for instance the minimum bale mass must be 20 kilograms and the maximum bale size 120 kilograms whereas the maximum bale’s dimensions are 61 cm * 86 cm * 61 cm.

Overweight, underweight and bales whose dimensions are in excess of the given are cautioned that such bales will be closed prior to sale and returned to the grower or his agent for re-baling.

Growers are also reminded that the required butt size should be 25-28mm as oversize butts may be rejected on appeal. Tobacco leaves under 18cm in length may be baled as loose leaf and very low stalk types may be difficult to straight lay.

A grower may deliver to the auction floor or contractor a bale, which contains two bordering grades of tobacco as a split bale. The grades must be bordering with regards to group, quality, colour and style.

However, only two grades may be put in a split bale, therefore splitting into three or more grades is not permissible.

Bales containing differing tobacco will not be allowed to sell and will be closed up by classifiers prior to the sale.

A sheet of baling paper should be used to separate the grades while no other material is to be used for separation purposes and a bale ticket marked “Split” should be attached at the end part of the bale.

Growers and auction floors are advised that auction sales of tobacco packaged in non-prescribed Hessian wraps or paper are not permitted.

It is recommended that if a grower is unhappy with any grade or price he or she has the right to appeal to the TIMB Arbitrator as indicated in section 7.2 (d) of the Tobacco Industry Marketing Act.

Buyers can also appeal to TIMB for a defect on a bale by tramlining the back of the ticket and write the reason for the appeal through marking the front of the ticket with the letter ‘A’ for Appeal “M” for mould and “F” in the case of foreign matter.

Lastly, farmers are not permitted to collect their rejected tobacco and auction floors are to make arrangements for such tobacco to be re-handled within their premises or engage licensed graders to carry out re-handling.

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 Numbers 08006003 / 0731999999 / 0712832804 or WhatsApp 0731999999 or E-mail: info@timb.co.zw

Wednesday, 22 February 2017

Controlling Tobacco Moth and Cigarette Beetles

Yvonne Mutava

Tobacco moth and cigarette beetles although small in appearance, cause significant destruction to stored tobacco and are considered the most harmful creatures to tobacco in warehouses.

Tobacco moth, also known as ‘Ephestia Elutella’ are external feeders which feed on tobacco leaves and other materials such as cotton seeds although they prefer tobacco with more high sugar content like flue-cured tobacco.

Ideally, a farmer should clean and check boilers, clean out tobacco scrap in sheds, wash his equipment, paint walls with white wash and treat his barns and sheds with insecticide as well as burn left over tobacco leaves and scrap so as to prevent pests and disease carryover.

For some farmers it has become natural to abandon their barns after curing their tobacco as they focus on the sales floors, since they are not aware that the pests feed on anything from tobacco scraps, dust, fines and any other form of dirty left in the barn.

The moth is most harmful to cured leaves in its caterpillar / larvae state hence tobacco farmers ought to inspect their crop to screen for tobacco moth and if found get rid of it before it develops into its adult stage and fly to new materials.

When the caterpillar has fed enough, it crawls away from the tobacco it would have fed on, spinning silken webs, evidence of long infestations.

Spider Webs are indicators of pest activities and reason for fumigation to take place.

As they move on floors and walls which are usually dirty, mature caterpillars hide in cracks, gaps and ceiling spaces, spinning small often dust covered silken cocoons in which they pupate.

These pests move quickly after infesting tobacco thereby making it more difficult to control by merely fumigating the tobacco / bales hence farmers should take heed when storing their tobacco as they might lose a whole lot to these tiny creatures.

When inspecting for the pests, one can use a magnifying glass or flashlight as the pests are attracted to light.

If found the entire storage facility would need to be closed up and fumigated in order to eliminate both the pupae and the adults.

Farmers are also urged to put wire mesh of appropriate gauge on doors and windows which stay open in order to prevent insects from entering as pests can fly several kilometres from neighbouring farms and sometimes distant places.

Consequently, farming practices in the community are everyone’s concern and if one farmer does not destroy stalk, every other member of the community’s tobacco is at risk as a result.

When tobacco bales infested with any of these pests are found on the sales floors (auction or contract), they are quarantined and fumigated at the tobacco farmer’s expense, and this does not only inconvenience the farmer as it interrupts the selling process for everyone.

Rarely are broken down equipment and obsolete machinery discarded on farms, instead they are stored often in barns where they accumulate dirt and tobacco residue thereby providing suitable haven for moths and pests.

These seemingly harmless creatures are required by the law through the Plant Pest and Diseases (Plant and Alternative Hosts) Order of 1976 to be reported to government authorities whenever they are seen as they can contaminate and destroy vast amounts of tobacco.

Farmers who will be selling their tobacco at the auction floors should note there will be the use of the electronic marketing platform at all the auction floors, namely Boka Sales Floor, Tobacco Sales Floor and Premier Tobacco Sales Floor this season and farmers will be able to follow the selling process on screens that have been installed at the floors.

Wednesday, 14 December 2016

Experiences of a farm manager

Buhle Nkomo

“I grew up on a farm where my father was a laborer. I developed keen interest in tobacco production at a tender age but was not be allowed to work hence I gained knowledge on tobacco production from the peripheries” said Stanley Damuson (43).

"I later on enrolled in courses in farming, short and others extensive. I have implemented what I learnt and in some instances fine-tuned the theory to suit my environment through adjusting and seeing what works."

''Farming is a continuous learning process, where sometimes you learn formally, other occasions you share knowledge with other farmers or you learn from your own experiences and mistakes.''

''My dream came true when I was employed as the Forester section H farm manager in Mvurwi in 2003, where I oversee all the farming activities.'' he said.

''Having grown on a farm and as a child to a farm worker, I have a soft spot for our work force and I want them to have a sense of belonging, this way I have realized farm laborers work better and produce more. ''continued Damuson

''I am very particular about implementing good agronomic practices as this guarantees good yield and quality leaf which translates to good prices at the floors and better income for everyone involved.

''The secret to tobacco farming is land preparation. If you cannot prepare your land properly, you compromise yield as well as the quality of the leaf.

''We start disking around mid-January then we apply glyphosate which is a chemical used to fight weeds before we apply lime in order to neutralize and balance the soil’s pH levels in preparation for the tobacco crop.'' he advised

''After disking, we start ploughing in a bid to maintain a weed free ground as this helps to manage diseases and insects that may be hosted by the weeds. Ploughing is then followed by ridging to conserve moisture.

''We usually grow tobacco for two years then we put maize for two seasons before we plant Katambora Rhodes grass for another two years. We benefit from this crop rotation as tobacco leaves a lot of residual fertilizer for the maize which in turn, together with the Katambora Rhodes grass, frees the land from nematodes.

''I keep a diary of all our activities and schedules of our operations such as irrigation, fertilizer application. Keeping a diary is a very important practice for all serious farmers. As I go through my diary, I internalize my operations and have everything on my fingertips, even as I sleep, I know exactly what each field needs.'' Damuson said.

''Depending on the market we produce tobacco for, we determine whether we want to produce orange styles or lemon styles of tobacco, something alien to many small scale farmers although very important.

''We staggered the planting of different fields so as to ease pressure on barns when it comes to curing and we are currently reaping and curing the crop that we planted on the first of September.

''There is need for a degree of thoroughness and determination throughout the tobacco production cycle. Although we have faced different challenges, we have soldiered on. '' he said.

''Generally Mvurwi does not receive much rainfall which is a challenge to the dry land-crop hence we have extracted our own dams using tractors and dumpers so as to reduce area that is not irrigated. We are currently considering the installation of drip irrigation to save on water.

''We have yielded 4000 – 4400kgs per hectare on irrigated crop and sometimes have gone up to about 3300 – 3500kgs per hectare on dry land crop.

"We have experienced hailstorm in the past seasons but our crops are always insured by Peter Liester. When we experienced the hailstorm, they came and assessed the damage in the field before compensating for the loss. "he said

Damson concluded by urging tobacco growers to implement good agronomic practices to experience a bumper harvest and obtain good prices during the selling season.