Jump to full article: All-Africa.com, 2009-11-01
Author: Pascal Kwesiga
Intro: THE information minister, Kabakumba Masiko, has told the people of Bunyoro to stop growing tobacco, saying it was no longer a profitable venture.
She said some people had grown tobacco for several years in her Bujenje constituency in Masindi district but they had remained poor.
Her remarks came at the time when over 5,000 tobacco farmers in Hoima district were protesting the delay by a local firm, Continental Tobacco, to pay them over sh3b.
Kabakumba was opening a three-day agricultural exhibition organised by Hoima Caritas Development Organisation, an arm of Hoima Catholic Diocese, at Boma grounds in Hoima town on Thursday. . . .
The minister explained that tobacco growing can only be carried out by farmers with large chunks of land and urged those with little land to embark on mixed enterprises, which is being supported by the Government.
"The growing of such crops is no longer possible because they need a lot of land, which we don't have," Kabakumba said.
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