ACCESS to affordable funding is critical to sustaining record production, as high borrowing costs and low profits continue to weigh down farmers, tobacco growers have said. The remarks come ahead of the sector’s marketing season, which opens next Wednesday. Tobacco Growers Association chairman Bright Bvukumbwe said improved funding arrangements largely drove last season’s record output.…
‘Better funding key to tobacco output’
The government is moving to localise 70 percent of tobacco funding in a bid to increase value addition and support local growers.