In the midst of global anti-tobacco farming and smoking campaigns: How resilient and sustainable are the tobacco farming co-operatives in southern Africa?

Abstract

Cognizant of the harms registered through tobacco farming and consequently smoking on the environment and human health, the world is witnessing campaigns against both tobacco farming and smoking. These campaigns are expected to affect the tobacco sub-sector, which contributes to the economies of the leading tobacco-producing countries, namely Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, Malawi, and Mozambique. The campaigns have in some countries been followed by governments’ partial engagement or total disengagement from providing inputs, credit, extension services, and price support. To protect this subsector, tobacco farmers, inter alia, had to engage agricultural and marketing cooperative societies (AMCOS). However, the extent to which AMCOS engagement by farmers has been realized is empirically unknown. Amid these campaigns, understanding how resilient and sustainable tobacco cooperatives have been, remains imperative. Resilience building supports people and institutions in adapting to new circumstances, hence sustainability. This article analyses the resilience and sustainability of Tobacco co-operatives using a documentary research method. In this article, resilience has been analyzed based on (i) networks, (ii) innovation, and, (iii) the role of the state. Varied degrees of government support to the tobacco sub-sector have been identified. Contract farming has been exploited to fill the gap where the minimal role of the state has been registered. Despite the global anti-smoking campaigns, tobacco production is on the increase in southern Africa. Resilience and sustainability have been observed to vary country-wise. Due to tobacco’s economic value in these countries, the campaigns cannot bear significant positive results in the absence of alternatives to tobacco farming.