BY MICHELINA ANDREUCCI
The first auction of flue-cured tobacco was held in Harare in 1920, when 120 000lbs (54 432ks), were sold.
By then, five varieties of tobacco were being grown in the country; namely Flue-cured, Burley, Cigar tobacco, Maryland, Virginia and Oriental (also known as Turkish tobacco). All these varieties have similar methods of cultivation and grow best in the lighter sandy soils of Mashonaland.
However, tobacco reaping and curing processes vary with each variety.
An elementary pest control and fertilizer research programme was begun in 1922 in the Mazoe area, and the first tentative Hail Insurance Cover Scheme for tobacco was launched the following year in 1923.
The number of commercial tobacco growers increased from 129 in 1925 to 987 in 1927-1928, when the total production of tobacco amounted to 24 million pounds. However, over production flooded the market resulting in an overnight drop in prices, forcing many tobacco farmers into bankruptcy.
As a result, the colonial government recognized the need to regulate the industry and over the ensuing eight years, passed several laws aimed at stabilizing the production and marketing processes and improving the quality of the product. Concurrently the colonial government initiated financial assistance programmes to lure European farmers into cultivating tobacco locally.
One of these programmes was the Ulere Motor Transportation System in 1936.
The Ulere Motor Transportation system provided free transportation for migrant workers enroute to work on farms and mines in Southern Rhodesia. This was of particular importance to the then white-dominated tobacco industry because, unlike the cultivation of other crops, tobacco farming was labour intensive, and for up to ten months of a year, required a large work force. Tobacco is costlier and more labour intensive than other crops. it needs deeper ploughing, sterilization of the seedbeds to rid them of insects and weeds and also requires a significant amount of fertilizer.
Since many indigenous Zimbabwean workers were reluctant to work on the settler’s farms for such long periods; many farm workers were drawn from neighbouring countries such as Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique. Thus, the colonial government’s Migrant Labourers Initiatives further stimulated the recovery of the tobacco industry in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe today) in the 1930s.
In addition to male labour, tobacco farmers made extensive use of women and children at peak production times as casual labour. Women were paid proportionately lower wages than the male labourers.
The main source of juvenile labour came from the neighboring Shona communities who were employed to do some of the lighter tasks as well as those that required smaller hands. While the use of child labour in tobacco fields is common practice in many tobacco-producing countries it causes children to miss out on their education.
Interestingly, results of a study carried out in two villages in Malawi in 2004 showed that the labour-intensive nature of tobacco production may be the reason why most female-headed households do not cultivate tobacco as they have fewer labourers available to them than male headed households.
By 1930 different organisations were being formed to regulate the tobacco industry such as the Tobacco Control Board, which required all growers to register. This was later replaced by the Tobacco Marketing Board (now known as the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board – TIMB), in 1936 whose functions included mandating compulsory sales of all tobacco at Marketing Board operated auction floors; establishing quotas for each registered grower and establishing new overseas markets.
The Rhodesian Tobacco Association formed in 1928, supported the Government in draughting the Tobacco Market Stabilization Act of 1935, which empowered the Tobacco Marketing Board to licence auction floors and buyers and to control tobacco sales. Four years later the number of tobacco growers rose from 638 in 1939 to 796 in 1945.
The growers also formed a cooperative insurance scheme, called Tobacco Hail Insurance in 1938 to provide risk assurance cover. These institutions still in place today, albeit modified to suit the present circumstances.
World War II further accelerated the growth of this industry, when British manufacturers, being cut off from most of their traditional supplies in the United States, came to rely on Zimbabwean-grown tobacco as their main source of unprocessed tobacco. By 1945 the increase in demand and production enabled the tobacco industry to become the most important export industry in the country.
In 1947 a tobacco grower’s delegation succeeded in committing British cigarette and cigar manufacturers to purchase 46 million pounds of Zimbabwean tobacco annually for the succeeding five years. This was extended for a further two years during which time export sales rose to £75 million.
In 1949 a similar agreement was reached with Australian cigarette manufacturers. Local tobacco growers continued to strengthen their export position during the 1950s, vis-a-vis British cigarette manufacturers, so much so, that in 1956, local tobacco producers forced the suspension of auction sales when prices were considered unsatisfactory.
Another price dispute occurred in 1958, with similar consequences. However, given their strong market visibility, high quality tobacco and high consumer demand, at the close of the 1961 auctions, British tobacco manufacturers committed themselves to an annual purchase of local tobacco for the sum of £95 – £100 million over the ensuing three years.
The illegal Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI), declared by Ian Smith’s regime in 1965, and the ensuing 15 years of economic isolation (as a result of UN-imposed sanctions), constrained the expansion in the volumes of leaf produced and reduced the effective profits of the commercial tobacco growers.
Tobacco is not a homogeneous product and is tolerant to extreme weather conditions. It will grow in almost any climate but does best in topical and semi-tropical climates like Zimbabwe. However, it varies in type and quality when grown in different countries or different regions in a country (FAO, 2003).
Michelina Andreucci is a Zimbabwean-Italian researcher and a published author in her field. For comments E- mail:linamanucci@gmail.com
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