Assessing the impact of tobacco farming in poverty alleviation: the case of small holder Centenary farmers

Abstract

This paper presents a review on the literature of tobacco farming on the observed research on the impact of tobacco farming on the livelihoods of smallholder farmers as well its impact on poverty alleviation. In this study I drew on the existing academic structure on tobacco farming in Zimbabwe. An examination of the factors that led farmers in partaking tobacco farming was carried out on 86smallholder farmers. The case was in Centenary District. This study was therefore initiated with the aims to (i) to establish the significance of tobacco farming in sustaining livelihoods. (ii) to evaluate socio economic challenges faced by smallholder tobacco farmers (iii) to determine and analyse the impact of coping strategies employed by small holder farmers. Q ualitative research method was used because it is flexible and it managed to give an in-depth analysis of the impact of tobacco farming in Centenary. Purposive sampling was used to select the smallholder farmers. Questionnaires and interviews were used to collect data. The findings shows that tobacco farming improved the livelihoods and has alleviated poverty on smallholder farmers through impacting better income, improved household food security, increased assert ownership, better standard of living, improved household asserts, creation of employment and improved housing structure but however though tobacco farming has improved livelihood it has caused land degradation and premature deaths due to lack of protective clothes farmers suffered from diseases such as green tobacco sickness.