Switching from tobacco yields advantages for farmers in Malawi

Lilongwe ‒ Shombe Banda from Kasungu District in Central Malawi was a tobacco farmer for 35 years. He lately switched to rising different crops, similar to soya beans, groundnuts and maize. His motivation to alter was largely financial, he says. 

“With tobacco, I used to be dropping,” says Banda. “It requires a whole lot of inputs like fertilizer, which may be very costly now and tobacco is simply too labour intensive.”

“Now I exploit the soya beans and groundnut residues to develop composite manure. I apply the manure in my maize discipline and because of this, I exploit much less fertilizer and maintain expenditure down. The crops that I develop now are straightforward to handle and promote as there are regionally accessible markets in every single place. For maize I promote some and maintain the remaining as meals for my household. We’re a contented and self-reliant household,” he says. 

In late 2023, Malawi took a big step ahead in its tobacco management measures by ratifying World Well being Group (WHO)’s Framework Conference on Tobacco Management (FCTC), a vital worldwide treaty designed to deal with the extreme public well being dangers related to tobacco consumption and publicity to tobacco smoke. 

A key facet of implementation of the FCTC is to work with tobacco farmers on crop alternative and diversification which additionally has long-term financial, agricultural and well being advantages. In Malawi, implementation is in its infancy and so farmers like Banda, and Bazilio Luuwanga, one other farmer from Kasungu District, are demonstrating the facility of those advantages. 

Luuwanga explains that the difficulties with tobacco farming prolong far past the sphere. Tobacco farmers should prepare transport for themselves and their baled crops to the tobacco public sale flooring the place they’re offered. The flooring are situated very removed from residence. When the tobacco is offered, farmers should then journey far to banks in district headquarters or cities to entry their funds. 

“Once I was rising tobacco and I used to journey to the tobacco public sale flooring, typically the opposite farmers and I had no cash to purchase meals,” he says. “We may spend nights in unsafe lodging, placing our lives in danger. In all this I used to consider my spouse and kids at residence solely to come back again with much less returns attributable to managed costs and so many unexplained deductions.” 

Now that Luuwanga farms meals crops similar to maize, he has extra management. “The massive distinction now could be that I’m in direct contact with patrons, some even come right here proper to my farm. This manner, I’m now in a position to negotiate the promoting value with the customer proper right here at residence,” he says. 

WHO estimates that tobacco farmers might take up nicotine equal to smoking 50 cigarettes a day and Luuwanga bears testomony to this actuality. “Throughout harvesting, leaf kind high quality grading and when packing into bales, I used to endure a whole lot of chest pains and chronic coughing’” he says. “This was very dangerous as I needed to search medical consideration on a regular basis.”

Luuwanga says that the transition has improved his household’s high quality of life. This season, he was in a position to pay his daughter’s college charges. “I’m a contented individual now. I stick with my household. We plan, develop crops, harvest collectively, promote some and maintain some for meals. We’re collectively in every little thing. Collectively we see prosperity sooner or later,” he says.