{"id":68088,"date":"2018-07-05T11:02:28","date_gmt":"2018-07-05T09:02:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/?p=68088"},"modified":"2018-07-05T11:02:28","modified_gmt":"2018-07-05T09:02:28","slug":"contract-tobacco-growers-hit-jackpot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/2018\/07\/05\/contract-tobacco-growers-hit-jackpot\/","title":{"rendered":"Contract tobacco growers hit jackpot"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY CYPRIAN NDAU, A <\/em><\/strong>CONTRIBUTOR:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Somewhere in Chilaza Village, Traditional Authority (T\/A) Kalolo, in Lilongwe lives one tobacco farmer, Madalitso Gibson Nkhwekwe, who has just had preliminary sales of his tobacco.<\/p>\n

Nkhwekwe is always in jovial mood, which does not surprise anyone in the village who knows what the farmer\u2019s initial tobacco sales fetched at the market.<\/p>\n

Hearing Nkhwekwe telling his success story, one is left with an impression of a happy and satisfied farmer who has found contract farming more rewarding than one would expect.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have all reasons to smile because what I have reaped from my first tobacco sales this season is what any farmer would envy me for,\u201d explains the farmer who has been in contract farming with JTI for six years.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom 34 bales of the first lower-leaves (kammaondo), I have fetched enough to settle my loan with JTI and enough to pay half-down for my labour force \u2013 and that\u2019s not a mean achievement considering the prices kammaondo is traditionally known to fetch,\u201d he continues.<\/p>\n

Nkhwekwe\u2019s 34 bales of kammaondo were of very good quality, properly graded and, due to the high yields, he was able to produce, the returns he got out of this tobacco were very favourable.<\/p>\n

The picture gets more interesting when one learns that, having fully settled his loan with JTI using the proceeds from the traditionally low-rated kammaondo, the proud farmer has over 70 more bales of regular leaf to sell.<\/p>\n

Nkhwekwe is not the only farmer riding on the success of contract tobacco farming: the situation is common across the country where farmers grow the green gold under contract.<\/p>\n

Two of such farmers are Griffin Chinjoka Mkandawire of Sisavingiso Club, and Christopher Mazaza Gondwe of Zutwe Club in Rumphi District they have had a share of the \u2018miracle sales\u2019 from their leaf.<\/p>\n

Like the proud farmer of Chilaza Village in T\/A Kalolo in Lilongwe, Mkandawire and Gondwe have had their loans with JTI off their backs just with the initial sales, leaving the much-awaited sale of the quality leaf as profit.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest, JTI has, over the years, continued to reward us for the good quality we produce and coupled with the high yields we are able to attain, our tobacco is creating a very uncommon trend of being able to repay your loans from the first lower leaf offers,\u201d Mkandawire says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve repaid my loans and paid all my workers with only 24 bales and I\u2019m remaining with about 80 bales of high-quality upper leaf which I\u2019m yet to take to the market,\u201d he continues, a proud smile washing over his face.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, Gondwe has had 36 bales of his lower leaf sold and the farmer proudly awaits the bigger kill as he takes the remaining \u2018cream\u2019 of the green gold to the floors.<\/p>\n

Gondwe, Mkandawire, Nkhwekwe and hundreds of other farmers under contract farming have not achieved all this with their hands down: it results from the farmers\u2019 adherence to technical advice they get from JTI\u2019s extension workers, popularly known as leaf technicians.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough contract farming or what you know as Integrated Production System (IPS), we have access to a pool of competent extension workers who really know their job and they work closely with us right from the nursery to the field and throughout to the barn,\u201d Gondwe explains.<\/p>\n

He continues: \u201cIf you pay attention and follow their advice to the letter, the end product is exactly what the company looks for and they offer you the desired price in return.<\/p>\n

According to the farmers, JTI, through its extension workers, provides its contract farmers with all necessary materials including the right varieties of tobacco seeds.<\/p>\n

But while most growers bask in the glory of wealth like this, there are some who return home from the market with sullen faces due to low prices their tobacco fetches at the market.<\/p>\n

The three growers this writer interviewed separately agree that low prices of tobacco mostly arise when the tobacco was poorly graded or when non-tobacco related materials (NTRM) are found in the bale.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome farmers put tobacco of low quality beneath that of high quality in one bale hoping that the buyer will be misled and offer a higher price thinking the quality of the leaf on top is the same below,\u201d Gondwe explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut this is a very bad practice because even with just one low quality sheath of tobacco amid high quality tobacco, the price you get for the entire bale is that of the lowest quality and it is very painful to the grower,\u201d he continues.<\/p>\n

Nkhwekwe is more direct in his remarks on cheating when baling tobacco: \u201cTobacco growers ought to know clearly that, for every NTRM found in the tobacco, it is the farmer who pays the cost by the end of the day.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe, as tobacco growers, should always be there to monitor every stage the leaf undergoes before it is taken to the floors for sale to ensure that quality is not compromised.\u201d<\/p>\n

JTI Corporate Development Director, Limbani Kakhome, recently told Members of Parliament who toured the company\u2019s premises that IPS has greatly helped the country produce the leaf sustainably and has significantly addressed issues of NTRM and mixing of tobacco of different grades.<\/p>\n

\u201cTobacco business is three dimensional: there is the farmer, the buying company and the consumer,\u201d he explained: \u201cIf NTRM is not checked to the very end, it\u2019s the consumer who will be affected.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will in turn affect the buyer who may consider stopping buying the leaf and it is the farmer who will suffer most in this case.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kakhome said IPS has helped improve the working relationship between the tobacco buyer and growers, such that the product the grower produces is that which the consumer needs and the reputation of Malawi as a key tobacco producer on the international market is guaranteed.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cEvery grower is visited by a leaf technician at least nine times in a year \u2013 to supervise and ensure that best agriculture labour practices are followed and the tobacco we buy is produced in a sustainable manner.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Kakhome, we as the current season promises to be successful given the feedback the company continues to get from its contract farmers, like Nkhwekwe, Mkandawire and Gondwe.<\/p>\n

\u201cJTI, are always happy to see growers\u2019 lives change for the better and it gives us satisfaction when we see and hear our growers give testimony of how tobacco farming has made them prosperous; this tells us one thing: we are realising our goal,\u201d Kakhome explains.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY CYPRIAN NDAU, A CONTRIBUTOR: Somewhere in Chilaza Village, Traditional Authority (T\/A) Kalolo, in Lilongwe lives one tobacco farmer, Madalitso Gibson Nkhwekwe, who has just had preliminary sales of his tobacco. Nkhwekwe is always in jovial mood, which does not surprise anyone in the village who knows what the farmer\u2019s initial tobacco sales fetched at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":68094,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68088"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68088\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68095,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68088\/revisions\/68095"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}