ZIMBABWE
Foreign currency incentives have played a large role in drawing more than 116,000 farmers to register for the 2017/18 marketing season, representing a 42% increase from 82,110 farmers who registered during the same period last year. At least 33,307 of the 116,000 farmers are new growers.
In 2016 the government awarded tobacco farmers an export incentive, which pays the farmer a bonus of 12.5% on the foreign currency generated. The increase in farmer registration has largely been influenced by the need for farmers to obtain individual grower’s numbers so that they benefit from this incentive.
The fact that farmers are no longer paid in cash, but rather in “plastic cash” – having the money deposited in bank accounts or paid through EcoCash – has also made it difficult for the farmers to share their money after selling their crop.
Farmers had been using other growers numbers to sell tobacco, but the introduction of plastic money and foreign currency incentive had made it difficult for them to continue with the system popularly known in tobacco growing areas as “kuberekana”. Now, farmers are forced to obtain a growers number because last season they could not get their foreign currency incentive.