By CHATULA KANGALI –

THE 2015/2016 farming season for tobacco in Eastern Province has been adversely affected due to lack of a reliable market for the cash crop.
Last year, Zambia produced more than 27,000 tonnes of tobacco but the country is likely to record low output this year because growing of the cash crop has slowed down.
Eastern Fodya Association of Zambia chairperson Franklyn Mwale said in an interview that only 450 farmers out of the 5,600 had grown tobacco this year.
Mr Mwale said that many farmers were shunning tobacco farming due to market uncertainties in the country.
“The market for tobacco in Zambia is not certain. A number of farmers have this year not grown the crop because they are not sure whether it will be bought or not.
“We had a situation last year where tobacco farmers were stranded with the crop due to lack of a market and farmers had difficulties in finding buyers,” he said.
Mr Mwale said that Eastern Province was a major producer of tobacco in the country, producing more than 9,000 tonnes and that the crop had for years remained a source of employment and income generating venture for most farmers in the area.
He said the slowing down of tobacco growing in the area would affect the country’s annual production.
Mr Mwale added that the province was experiencing a poor rainfall pattern and that tobacco yields were expected to be low this year.
He however, commended the Government for its move not to ban tobacco production following calls by the anti-tobacco lobby groups to do so.
Agriculture Deputy Minister Maxus Ng’onga on Monday this week during a meeting in Lusaka announced that Government would not ban tobacco farming because it was a source of income for many rural communities in the country.