Tobacco, favoured but costly crop to grow in Uganda

Although tobacco is widely grown and generates a high revenue in Uganda's West Nile district, poverty continues to hound many communities mainly because cultivation of the crop requires many inputs and does not ensure food security.

The West Nile region's best asset - tobacco, has also been its worst enemy, eating away the area's previously well-endowed natural resources, leaving the people in poverty and backwardness.

The thick natural vegetation has slowly been destroyed as a desperate population searches for wood fuel to cure tobacco and burn charcoal for sale to earn a living. Towering tobacco curing barns stand out in homesteads surrounded by hundreds of grass-thatched mud huts. Driving the area, the only gardens that were fresh and well cultivated were hundreds of acres of tobacco.

According to the Member of Parliament for Terego in Nyadri district, Kasiano Wadri, West Nile Region alone produced 10 million kilogrammes of tobacco. A kilo of high grade cured tobacco sells for Shs1,800 ($1.10) according to the locals. The average price for tobacco is Shs1,500 (95 cents).

The area's good tobacco income, however, is not reflected in the way of life. So where did the money from the tobacco go? "The cultivation of tobacco is labour-intensive and destructive to the environment, as it requires wood fuel for its curing, but we have no alternative," Wadri said.

On a recent, Vice President Gilbert Bukenya was so shocked by the levels of poverty in the region that he urged farmers to diversify their crops for both income earning and food security. "I don't believe poor people owning small acreages of land should grow tobacco. This crop must be left for large-scale farmers who can afford to pay loans. This is not a poor man's crop. How can they say they earn so much money and yet there is so much poverty around?" he asked.

Bukenya wants poor households and small landholder farmers to grow fast-maturing crops that can be sold and also used as a food resource. He said, "Rice grows very well in this region. I have been told by some farmers that even after they harvest the tobacco, they can grow rice immediately after and be able to get some food to eat. This region is also known for the best organic honey in the world. Why can't we support our people to harvest honey and grow these crops?"

West Nile has honey with flavours from the area's numerous moringa trees. However, because of the destruction of the natural vegetation by people in search of firewood, most families that rear wild bees have lately been frustrated by small dog-like animals called bee bargers, which eat both the honey and the bees. The animals, which used to survive on wild bees in the natural forests, have now turned to domestic hives as most of their habitat has been destroyed.

But the Member of Parliament for Maracha in Nyadri district, Alex Onzima, says since tobacco is the main cash crop in the region, the government should intervene and subsidise the farmers. "It is the most expensive crop to grow and it's labour intensive. People have gone to school here because of tobacco but they also incur many loans. In the end, they get peanuts. In Zimbabwe, farmers benefit more."

Asraf Noha, 32, of Lodora village in Lodora sub-county, Koboko district says he owns two acres of land and has been growing tobacco for the last three years. "Here, we all grow tobacco; they give us loans to buy the seeds and we don't have to look for the market or even transport the tobacco. Tobacco firms always come for it, so we don't spend much," he says.

However, Noha spends much more than he cares to add up. In three years, he has only managed to buy one traditional cow. When he heard about the Friesian cow, he was crestfallen. "It is true, the local cow does not give milk as much as the exotic ones. But exotic cows are very expensive. I can't afford that even if I desperately want it. Most of the money I get, I spend on fertilisers, spraying insecticides and maintaining the barn. The problem is we don't have access to other crops that we can make money from. Cassava is a recent crop and it's grown mainly because of the market in Southern Sudan. The rice seeds are not available; the only crop with a ready market is tobacco," he said.

The vice president's theory was simple. Tobacco is labour intensive and takes nine months to harvest. Rice takes three months and can be eaten and sold at the same time. Bees come as naturally as the weather allows. "All you need is a hive that you hang up in a tree to trap the bees. You can have three activities on a two-acre piece of land. Rear chicken for eggs, or bees that don't even take space, have a fish pond, keep a Friesian cow or grow a quick maturing crop like rice," he said.

The Monitor