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Zimbabwe is Africa’s largest tobacco producer.
The size of the tobacco crop increased despite increased fertilizer prices caused by the war in Ukraine, according to officials. The southern African country now wants to make its tobacco industry more lucrative by manufacturing more cigarettes at home and limiting foreign funding of farmers. Currently, China funds the bulk of production and buys the lion’s share of Zimbabwe’s tobacco.
Once harvested, tobacco leaves are dried and prepared to make products such as cigarettes, cigars, chewing tobacco and pipe tobacco. At auction, premium prices are paid for the “golden leaf” that is exported around the world.
Dr. Prasad says that food insecurity is growing in countries that should be able to feed their own people. “There are countries now which are requesting for food because of the various crises. The access to food is limited and many of these countries are well endowed with enough land – fertile land, water to grow food for many other countries. And so it’s ironic that they are ending up importing food from other countries.”
In recent years Zimbabwe has rapidly increased the size of its crop, regaining its spot as one of the world’s top five exporters of tobacco, peaking at 261 million kilograms (288,000 tons) in 2019. According to WHO, since 2005, there has been a nearly 20% increase in tobacco farming land across Africa.
The number of people facing acute food insecurity rose to 258 million in 58 countries in 2022, according to the latest Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC). According to a study published by Tobacco Control, a journal on tobacco research in 2021, Zimbabwean tobacco farmers, close to 60% of farmers, said they were in debt. The sample involved 381 farmers.
World No Tobacco Day took place on May 31. The theme this year is: “Grow Food, Not Tobacco.”
This article was provided by The Associated Press.