Tobacco Asia

60 tobaccoasia / Issue 4, 2018 September / October Members of the International Tobacco Growers' Association (ITGA) in Africa gathered in Harare, Zimbabwe this past June for the ITGA Regional Meeting 2018. Growers debated the challenges the sector is facing, especially in Africa. The partici- pants from the main tobacco growing countries in Africa agreed on the need for a holistic approach towards tobacco growing in order to ensure the sus- tainability of the crop in the long term. A point was made on this regard requesting the involvement of governments and stakeholders to develop joint pro- grams that may tackle these issues efficiently. The Minister of Land, Agriculture, and Rural Resettlement, represented by the permanent sec- retary, R.J Chitsiko, opened the ceremony giving emphasis to the important contribution of tobac- co to the Zimbabwean economy. "This current season, Zimbabwe's expected production of to- bacco stands at 220 million kilograms, with earn- ings of US$650 million in growers' earnings. This will be the highest volume and value attained since the land reform. Furthermore, the crop accounted for 11% of the GDP in 2017, constituting 61% of all agriculture exports and 21% of total exports," he said. Talking about the social impact of tobacco in Zimbabwe, Chitsiko added that the regional to- bacco growing sector employs more than 3.9 mil- lion people. He also appealed to farmers to em- ploy sustainable tobacco programs so as to reduce the negative environmental impact of tobacco growing, through good agriculture practices like using sustainable curing fuel and not employing child labor, finishing his speech by reiterating the government's commitment to support the sector. The meeting was the occasion for the launch of a very important report commissioned by ITGA and undertaken by an independent research com- pany, TUTWA. According to the findings of this study, which covered five tobacco-growing countries in southern Africa, the average of people employed directly and indirectly in the tobacco value chain counts for 50% of the total agriculture labor force in those coun- tries. Another interesting point regarding employ- ment, according to the study, is that every time a job is created in the tobacco sector, almost two jobs are created in the national economy. The economic side of the study reflects how tobacco is one of the biggest African exports, making tobacco a very im- portant trading factor for Africa as a whole. Other findings point to the high- skilled agriculture prac- tices undertaken by tobacco growers, who generally produce food crops in rotation with tobacco. These food crops are used for domestic consumption, but in many cases the surplus is commercialized, con- tributing to import reductions. The study also high- lights the need to implement more sustainable pro- duction practices, but acknowledges the fact that ITGA Regional Meeting: Restating the Important Role of Tobacco in Africa International Tobacco Growers' Association (ITGA)

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