Tobacco Farmers and Their Communities: Interlinkages, Gains and Losses in Mazowe, Zimbabwe

This article investigates spillover effects from the interlinked transactions arising from smallholder tobacco farmers’ participation in contract farming arrangements in the Mazowe district of Mashonaland Central. The case study is based on data from a household survey conducted in the district and includes both tobacco farmers and households that do not produce tobacco. Interviews, participant observation and a review of statistical data and grey literature helped trace dynamics of production, intra-household relations and changing communal relations. The study explores how social relations and power imbalances shape the distribution of benefits, costs and losses resulting from the adoption of contract farming in the production of tobacco. The paper argues that the adoption of contract farming leads to a range of interlinked transactional outcomes, such as the diversification of agricultural production and new investments into non-farm activities by the poorer members of the community. In turn, these interlinked transactions generate jobs and increase food consumption and effective demand for services at the community level. However, it is also the case that the gains from these interlinked transactions are highly skewed against the poorer people in the district and that wealthier and better-connected farmers gain more from adopting tobacco than their less wealthy and less well-connected peers. This could lead to increased inequality in the community. The paper shows how agricultural dynamism generates spillover and multiplier effects that benefit communities in an unequal and poorly understood manner.