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Tobacco companies ordered to take care of land
2006-09-02 09:27:41
By Juddy Ngonyani, PST, Sumbawanga
Rukwa Regional Commissioner Daniel Njolay has directed all tobacco companies operating in the region to establish tree nurseries and distribute seedlings to tobacco farmers in the coming rainy season.
The move aims at providing the farmers with sustainable source of firewood for curing tobacco crop in the long run instead of overdependence on natural forests, a practice blamed for causing severe deforestation in the region.
Njoolay was briefing the press at his office on Tuesday and held responsible both tobacco companies and farmers for damaging the land through reckless harvesting of trees for tobacco cure.
Fuel-wood has traditionally been used to cure raw tobacco, leading to bare land susceptible to erosion. No concerted efforts have been made to replace the lost trees over years.
”The buyers are only interested in the crop and the farmers are merely concerned with producing more tobacco and earn more cash.
For decades, the farmers have been cutting down trees to cure tobacco without thinking about the destruction they cause to land. Now things must change,” the RC declared.
He said that implementation of the directive would in the long run halt deforestation in the region as farmers would harvest trees from their planted farms to cure the their tobacco crop.
”I have told the companies and tobacco farmers that it is not the issue of merely planting trees but they should also take care of them to ensure that they grow to maturity for economic use,” he stressed.
Meanwhile, Njoolay has advised millet farmers to stop the habit of clearing new land every season.
Instead, he directed them to opt cultivating crops that do not require clearing of patches of forests, like maize.
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