Tobacco curing eats up zimbabwe forest #zimbabwe

WHILE, smoking tobacco is extremely harmful for human
beings growing it has been good for Zimbabwe's economy
and its farmers. Now, however, both the government and
farmers have become increasingly aware that tobacco
farming also comes at a great cost to the environment.
Income from tobacco in 2013, accounted for at least 10.7
percent of the Zimbabwe's GDP and 21.8 percent of all
exports, compared to 9.2 percent for other agricultural
commodities.
However, the Forestry Commission says 20 percent of the
330,000 hectares of natural forest lost annually (the
Commission's 2005 figures) was cut for firewood to cure
tobacco. The deforestation rate was particularly high during
the height of the land reform programme, which began in
2000. Under the programme the government intended to
acquire 11 million hectares of white-owned farmland and
redistribute it on a massive scale. A majority of the new
farmers use wood to cure their tobacco, said Abedinigo
Marufu, deputy general manager of the Forestry
Commission. Prior to the land reform, most of the about
1,500 white large-scale tobacco growers used forced air
curing units which use power to drive motors and fans to
push the hot air fired by coal, through the curing system.
The remainder used wood.
The rate of deforestation "was insignificant", Marufu said.
He explained that some of the white farmers who used
wood had their exclusive forest lots which they used to
harvest the wood from, while those who cut indigenous
trees cut them selectively.
The most authoritative figures on forest cover loss come
from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
Global Forest Resources Assessment.
Its 2010 edition, listed Zimbabwe as being among 10
countries that recorded the largest forest cover loss
between 1990 and 2010. It said Zimbabwe had been losing
327,000 hectares of forest cover per year over the two
decades.
Besides being used as firewood for curing tobacco and in
other sectors such brick-making, the other drivers of
deforestation in Zimbabwe include agricultural expansion
driven by population growth and forest fires.
The decimation of forests has reached such alarming
proportions that during his Independence Day address
earlier this year, President Robert Mugabe threatened to ban
the growing of tobacco.
"Our people are growing tobacco and want to make money
out of it but on the down side we have seen massive
deforestation leading to desertification in some areas. We
are saying to them, 'use coal or we will stop tobacco
production'," he said.
Roselyn Rukasha is one of the many tobacco farmers who
uses wood to cure her tobacco.
"Every step of growing tobacco needs attention to detail and
how well you cure your crop will make a difference to what
you get paid for it," she told IRIN at one of the tobacco
auction floors in the capital, Harare, where she had
delivered her crop.
She is aware of the impact of indiscriminate tree-cutting
but has no choice, at least for now.
"I have set aside some land for a wood lot and have planted
some eucalyptus trees," she explained as part of her efforts
to control the damage to the environment.
But the trees will only be ready for harvest in about five
years. In the meantime she hopes to start using coal to cure
her 2014-15 crop. However, getting the coal to where she
farms is going to be a challenge.
Andrew Matibiri, the chief executive of the Tobacco Industry
Marketing Board (TIMB), said that while the country had an
abundant supply of coal it is not distributed widely or
adequately to the tobacco farming regions in northern
Zimbabwe.
"Coal is mined about 800km away in Hwange and the issue
is about transportation," he said, adding that while coal is
cheap at source, the cost of transporting it to the tobacco
growing regions made it expensive.
"In most cases it's [coal] delivered by the wagon load of
about 40 tons and most small scale growers can only afford
to buy 50 or 100kg bags at a time," said Matibiri. A farmer
needs at least 3.5kg of coal to cure a kilogramme of
tobacco. Matibiti said TIMB was working with various
distributors to see if they can make the coal available in
affordable bags for the farmers.
The use of coal raises production costs. According to
Rodney Ambrose of the Zimbabwe Tobacco Association
(ZTA), the average cost of coal to a farmer is US$170 per
ton. Buying coal can amount to 10 percent of the farmer's
production costs.
David Musabayane, who grows tobacco in the Wedza area,
cited cost, rather than non-availability of coal as the
problem in his area.
"The local council has a pile of coal for sale but the farmers
would rather cut down indigenous trees to cure their
tobacco because they do not have the money or they just
don't want to add to their production costs," he noted
adding that to the farmers wood is free. In search of
sustainable solutions TIMB's Matibiri suggested that
farmers use a more fuel-efficient way of curing tobacco by
erecting rocket barns (furnaces), which use 50 percent less
wood because of the way they are designed.
However, ZTA's Ambrose says rocket barns cost US$
5,000-6,000, which puts them beyond the reach of most
smallholder growers who still use the less fuel-efficient
conventional barns.
Forestry Commission's Marufu pointed out that there are
efforts in place to try and mitigate the loss of trees such as
the Sustainable Afforestation Association set up in 2013 by
tobacco growers and merchants. The association planted
about 600 hectares of woodlots for future curing.
But this is clearly not enough. The Environmental
Management Agency's (EMA) Steady Kangata told IRIN that
more trees are being felled than being planted.
Tobacco farmers are required to pay $25 for a permit to cut
firewood to the Forestry Commission every year. This
money is then used to plant seedlings in deforested areas.
However, Marufu says, the farmers have resisted paying the
fee, and feels a sustained campaign to educate farmers is
required. Marufu says penalties ranging from $20 to $,1000
or custodial sentences are in place for tree-fellers without
permits.
The EMA also has a schedule of fines ranging from $5 to $
5,000. Marufu told IRIN that some arrests have been made.
The police are empowered to demand a licence from
anybody found with large amounts of wood and can arrest
anybody who fails to produce one. The Commission also
launched a Tobacco Wood Energy Programme in 2005 to
encourage farmers to set aside a piece of land on their
plots to plant a woodlot of fast growing tree species such
as eucalyptus for the purpose of tobacco curing. The
commission is also carrying out research on fast growing
indigenous tree species so farmers can have a wider choice
of what to grow in their woodlots.
But while coal and non-indigenous fast growing tree
species are seen as the panacea for deforestation in
Zimbabwe, environmentalists say these options can create
other problems. Coal emits warming greenhouse gases into
the atmosphere while the water-hungry eucalyptus trees
may deplete water sources.