Mugabe threatens tobacco growing ban

President Robert Mugabe has warned farmers that tobacco production will be banned in Zimbabwe if they continue to cut down trees to provide fuel for curing their crops, according to a story on NewZimbabwe.com.

In his Independence Day speech on the weekend, Mugabe said tobacco growers were causing desertification.

“Our people are growing tobacco and want to make money out of it, but on the downside we have seen massive deforestation leading to desertification in some areas,” he said.

“We are saying to them, ‘use coal or we will stop tobacco production.’”

The land reform program promoted by Mugabe has seen a big increase in the number of tobacco growers, but they are generally poorly resourced and have had to turn to the forests for curing fuel.

“We would rather have no tobacco than have deserts and no trees,” said Mugabe.