Friday, 17 June 2011 12:39
LILONGWE?It shouldn?t come as a surprise that Malawian tobacco farmers are failing to make money this year, says Kasungu South East MP Bokosi Khamba who believes it?s about time the country had few producers of the leaf.
?Tobacco prices are a source of concern,? said Khamba as he commented on the 2012 budget presented earlier this month by Finance Minister Ken Kandodo. ?This is an economic crop and not political as others want to make it in this House. We should allow tobacco to be grown in Mzimba and
Rumphi, Kasungu, Mchinji, Dowa, Ntchisi and parts of Lilongwe to be the ones to grow high quality leaf.?
He said districts such as Nkhotakota, Salima, Karonga, Chikhwawa and Nsanje should focus on cotton which has the potential to earn the country the much needed foreign exchange rather than depending on tobacco which hasn?t been well lately.
But with a touch of humour, Blantyre Rural East MP Henry Dama Phoya wanted Khamba to ?clarify on the type of tobacco that Nkhotakota grows.?
Speaker of Parliament Henry Chimunthu Banda, who is from Nkhotakota jumped in and said his district ?just like Salima, Lilongwe, Dowa and Kasungu is well known for the type of tobacco called burley.?
But that?s not what Phoya was trying to get at as he didn?t ask about the other districts. Nkhotakota is known for producing a highly potent form of cannabis sativa or marijuana. Although illegal, Malawi?s marijuana locally known as chamba is popular among the youth and Rastafarians. In the back streets of South Africa and the United Kingdom, users are willing to pay high prices for the substance.--maravipost
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