As tobacco burns out, Malawi looks to cannabis

Under a scorching sun at a trading post in Malawi, Chikumbutso Chekeni and his wife head to their tobacco sheds to dry their newly harvested leaf.

Nambuma, 35 kilometres northwest of the capital Lilongwe, used to be a thriving farming town, buoyed by vast tobacco farming businesses.

Today, even during harvest season the town is sleepy, leading some farmers to think about switching from tobacco to the newly legalised marijuana.

Malawi is one of the world's poorest countries but a major tobacco producer, ranking first in the world for burley and seventh for overall production.

No other economy is more dependent on the leaf. Government statistics say over 70% of the nation's export income comes from tobacco.

"The main challenge we face as farmers is the issue of low pricing, which is really killing us," said Chekeni, who has been farming tobacco for 22 years.

Returns from tobacco, dubbed the 'Malawi's Green Gold', have dwindled over the past decade due to declining global demands driven by anti-smoking campaigns.

Despite the low prices, he sees no other option but to continue farming. This is the only business he knows.

This year has particularly been bad. Low volumes and low prices at the auction floors in Lilongwe forced the Tobacco Commission to cut trade to three days a week.

Even on those three days, sales last only an hour.

"The future of tobacco farming is bleak," said grower Yona Mkandawire. "By now we should have a lot of tobacco in the warehouses and more trucks at the receiving bay, but there is a lot of empty space here."

Despite a sharp decline of tobacco earnings over the years, Malawi's government still calls it a "strategic crop" and defends the country's continuing investment in its production.

Last year tobacco earned Malawi US$173.5 million (R2.7 billion), down 27% from the year before, the Tobacco Commission said. -Fin24