PASI: Tobacco Alone is Just not Enough  

Amidst all this excitement one can already see the genuine elation that finally, the farmers receive their toil’s worth. For some this means being able to meet school fees payments . . .

This year by many standards, will perhaps go down as one of the worst in recent memory vis-à-vis the overall production in this sector. Initial estimates of tobacco sales this year were put at 42 million kgs. . . .

Perhaps it is on this background that the Prime Minister has taken it upon himself to rally up international financial support. Initial indications suggest that it will take a lot more on this country’s part to gain any meaningful injections. A comparison has been made where a football club in Europe spends more buying just one player than total commitments in aid to Zimbabwe. The Deputy Prime Minister could not have put it better at the recent World Economic Forum when he suggested that what Zimbabwe needs is direct investment as opposed to aid. This is would be the only way out to create a sustainable economy. . . .

While some of these countries remain largely poor, pockets of wealthy individuals do exist and perhaps looking to Africa could pay dividends. Surely there are some with spare change for poor Zimbabwe.

The long and short of it is that the agricultural sector and tobacco in particular, will in its self require significant financial and human input to get back to past levels. Expecting tobacco alone and other such sectors to be the salvation will take much longer than initially anticipated. If the wealthy would much rather spend £80 million on a soccer player than investing in Zimbabwe, then maybe it is time Zimbabwe wakes up, smells the coffee and look for other alternatives.

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