New mealie-meal scheme for tobacco farmers
PREMIER Tobacco Auction Floor (PTAF) has partnered with the Grain Millers Association in rolling out a credit facility that will see 50 000 tonnes of maize meal distributed to farmers, with repayment effected in the next marketing season.
This facility will go a long way in fighting side marketing, as farmers will be taking delivery of maize meal at zero deposit.
On many occasions, tobacco farmers find themselves hit hard by mealie-meal shortages to feed their workers and themselves during the peak working period, and end up borrowing money at high interest rates to buy it.
The new initiative is part of the corporate social responsibility of the tobacco industry to ensure that farmers have a steady food supply, complementing the Government’s efforts, and enabling them to continue growing tobacco.
PTAF executive director, Owen Murumbi, said the programme aims to supply farmers with maize meal, as most of them have tobacco, but lack grains. For every 10 bales of tobacco delivered, farmers will receive 10kg of maize meal for free.
Mr Murumbi added that the maize meal will be made available to rural communities on credit, with repayment made through the stop order system during the buying season.
“After the buying season, we want to continue supplying our farmers with maize meal,” he said.
The company has received four million tonnes of tobacco so far, about half of last year’s sales, and is expecting more deliveries. To improve operations, PTAF has received approval for 20 tractors to cultivate 5 000 hectares.
Mr Murumbi appealed to the Government to localise funding for tobacco to increase net proceeds into Zimbabwe.
This move is a positive step towards ensuring food security and supporting the tobacco industry, which has been affected by drought and reduced output in recent years.
Tobacco farmers have welcomed the move, praising PTAF for providing convenient services, including extended operating hours for Mukuru and EcoCash.
“We are still offering promotions, which we offered last season, and farmers are excited about that,” Mr Murumbi said.
“In future, we will modify the promotions depending on each farmer’s taste. So, we will research and determine which promotions are appropriate.”
Apart from being an action floor, PTAF diversifies into growing tobacco, wheat and maize