More than 75 000 farmers have been contracted to grow tobacco for the 2025/26 season, with the communal farmers dominating the sector.
According to the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) statistics, by November 21, a total of 93 321 farmers had registered to grow tobacco in the 2025/26 season and 75 151 will produce the crop under contract farming arrangements.
Of the contracted growers, 40 626 are from the communal sector while 25 913 are from the A1 sector.
The A2 sector has 4 643 contracted growers while there are 3 969 farmers from the small-scale commercial sector.
According to the 2025/26 Summer Plan, 93 percent of tobacco production will be sponsored by the private sector through contracts while seven percent of the crop will be self-financed.
Tobacco production has been on the increase for the past years, with the growth guided by the Tobacco Value Chain Transformation Plan (TVCTP).
This year a milestone was reached as Zimbabwean farmers sold 355 million kilogrammes of tobacco for US$1,2 billion.
The crop contributes over US$1 billion annually to the economy, making it the flagship of the agricultural sector and a key driver of rural livelihoods.
Tobacco is an important agricultural export commodity that Zimbabwe has with over 60 destinations.
According to the Agriculture Food Systems and Rural Transformation Strategy (AFSRTS) 2, the structure of the tobacco sector has changed drastically following the successful land reform programme.
“Upwards of 85 percent of the crop is now produced by smallholder farmers and 60 percent of production is from beneficiaries of the land reform.
“The crop is grown predominantly under contract, which contributes 93 percent of production,” read the document.
Most farmers are opting for contract farming as they consider it viable, while others are resorting to the arrangement due to a shortage of funding.
The issue of self-funding remains a key challenge in the tobacco sector.
Many tobacco farmers feel that a large portion of the earnings is being retained or redirected through merchant-controlled financing structures, leaving them with little real benefit at the end of the season.
According to TIMB, while contract farming has helped boost production, it has also created a cycle of dependency that undermines farmer empowerment and long-term sustainability.
The Government is mobilising local funding for tobacco to boost production and productivity and ensure farmers get real value from the crop.
This will see efforts being put on increasing access to affordable and ensuring transparent self-funding mechanisms is essential
Zimbabwe is Africa’s largest tobacco producer and the fourth largest in the world, after China, Brazil and the United States.-herald
