The area under irrigated tobacco production has gone up from 4,327 hectares last season to 10,656 hectares this year – a raise of 146 per cent, reports The Herald.

A weekly report by the Agricultural and Rural Development Advisory Service (ARDAS) showed that the 4,327 hectares transplanted last year were planted by Mashonaland provinces of East, West and Central provinces with Manicaland having been added for this year’s season.
Mashonaland East province has increased the area under irrigation by 121 per cent from 1,764 to 3,894 hectares and both Mashonaland West and Central provinces have also increased their irrigated area, reports The Herald. According to the report, transplanting of irrigated crop is underway and that the condition of dryland tobacco seedlings is in fair to good condition.
The 2023/24 tobacco growing season has already been hyped and statistics from Kutsaga show that farmers have already bought 947 kgs of tobacco seeds with the potential of covering 189,417 hectares so far. Last year, 18,607 hectares of tobacco were planted under irrigation and the largest area planted under tobacco so far lies at 146,000 hectares in 2019, reports The Herald.
The Government’s Tobacco Value Chain Transformation Plan is looking to turn the Zimbabwean tobacco industry into a USD 5 billion industry by 2025 through more funding, increased production and productivity, value addition and beneficiation.