THE Zambia Co-operatives Federation has urged the government to quickly address the chaotic tobacco marketing before the opening of the next auction floors.
In an interview, Zambia Co-operatives Federation (ZCF) director general James Chirwa said the government ought to adequately prepare for the coming tobacco marketing season.
Key stakeholders in the agriculture sector have described the last tobacco marketing season as chaotic saying there were massive underpayments to farmers for their produce.
"We need to have proper and predictable policies overall in the agriculture sector and this includes those to do with tobacco farmers," he said.
Chirwa advised the government to develop properly defined policies which would state the roles and run-up activities to be undertaken in crop marketing.
He said the role of the private sector, the government and financial sector players should be well defined in government policy to address the challenges facing tobacco producers.
"The policy of the government must be predictable to allow people to plan and this is what we want to see as a co-operatives movement. We believe that agriculture in this country, with abundant resources, Zambia has potential to emerge as the major supplier of agriculture produce and products for the region and beyond but this goes with consistency in policies," he said.
Chirwa said Zambia could earn a lot from tobacco sales but marketing challenges needed to be addressed.
"Zambia, as late as the 1980s, was a major producer of high-grade tobacco; it was competing very well with Zimbabwe and Malawi and there were in existence defined auction floors for selling of tobacco in the country. But over the years, the country has not been very elaborate on agriculture policies," he said.
"Firstly, with the coming in power of the MMD in 1991 the whole agriculture policy was sort of mixed up. People didn't know what to do and when to do it, so we saw a decline in most of the agricultural production in the country and tobacco was not spared. I know that Eastern Province was producing high-grade tobacco, including Kaoma but because of the inconsistencies in the agriculture policies, coupled with lack of markets and marketing structures, the country was no longer investing in tobacco production."
Chirwa also urged the government to back its crop diversification rhetoric with action.
He condemned the government's continued massive and exclusive spending on maize production.
"…it is unfortunate that the country has been reduced to a mono-crop nation from a multi-crop nation as it were in the times before the liberalisation of the economy…we thought that by bringing on board economic liberalisation policies, agriculture could be enhanced so that the private sector is accelerated and driven into full-scale production but what has happened is the opposite. We need to shift from mono to multi-crop kind of agriculture activity. It is not too late…," said Chirwa.
"Economic growth is about exploring all the available opportunities within the agriculture sector, not just maize."
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