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Assessing Societal Benefits and Trade-Offs of Tobacco in the Miombo Woodlands of Malawi

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Abstract

This study assesses the social, economic and environmental impacts and trade-offs of investment in tobacco in two districts in the Miombo woodlands of Malawi. Socioeconomic impacts were analyzed for stakeholder groups differentially affected by large-scale tobacco cultivation: those losing land to estates, those employed on estates, small-scale growers selling to the estates and small-scale wood suppliers. Tobacco growers emerge the biggest beneficiaries from the expansion of tobacco, with real returns among smallholders depending on the extent to which tobacco cultivation constricts or boosts other livelihood activities. Those losing land to tobacco estates are the major losers: efforts to recuperate their livelihoods prove less than adequate to offset the costs of land loss. Smallholder wood suppliers shared more or less the same outcome as employees in securing low returns, often inadequate for more than basic livelihood needs. The literature and fieldwork also document high rates of tobacco-induced deforestation from plantation expansion and unsustainable wood sourcing practices for tobacco drying and curing. Negative ecological externalities are born by local stakeholders and the public alike. We identify opportunities for leveraging more equitable and sustainable outcomes from land-based investments in forested landscapes.

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Notes

  1. Usually on the pretext that these lands were “unutilized” (Chirwa 2004).

  2. For instance Jaffee (2003) argues that the system was intended to protect the interests of commercial growers by precluding competition from the African smallholder sector rather than to ensure product quality.

  3. http://faostat.fao.org/site/567/DesktopDefault.aspx?PageID=567#ancor

  4. The tobacco industry employs 12 % of the country’s workforce and generates a quarter of its tax earnings (Jomo and Seria 2010).

  5. These include federal buy-outs of tobacco production in the U.S. and the lifting of price supports in both the EU and the US.

  6. For instance, a tape measure was used to measure several stakes of wood described either as mendles or chords, with an average being derived for common usage. Through this preliminary standardization routine a chord was roughly equivalent to 2 mendles, which were equivalent to a standard ox-cart load, which was in turn equivalent to 2 cubic metres.

  7. Due to the higher fertility and soil moisture.

  8. The wood used to be more readily and cheaply available in the 1970s when the estate was established—with clearance of land for cultivation on adjacent farms and communal landholdings providing the major source of wood.

  9. Interview with Dr James Munthali, Alliance One, October 2009.

  10. Particularly the Forest Department and Agricultural Research and Extension Trust (ARET).

  11. Group discussion with wood suppliers in villages under Chief Mavyere, in Mchinji—October 2009.

  12. See also a recent WWF study, which found rampant illegal logging in Malawi’s protected areas—with Kasungu identified as one of the worst affected areas: ‘Uncertain future for Malawi’s forests’, available at: http://www.afrol.com/articles/19766 (accessed 28 July, 2010). See also: http://bushdrums.com/news/index.php?shownews=167.

  13. Interveiw with Dr Henderson Chimoyo, Tobacco Control Commission, October 2009.

  14. Interview with Dr Henderson Chimoyo, Tobacco Control Commission, October 2009. See also Africa News (2009), “High commodity pricing stalls Malawi exports”, available at: http://www.africanews.com/site/High_commodity_pricing_stalls_Malawi_exports/list_messages/28471 (accessed Jan 8, 2010).

  15. E.g., groundnuts, Irish and sweet potatoes, cassava, tobacco, maize, millet and beans.

  16. Green mealies, Irish and sweet potatoes, sugar cane and a variety of vegetable crops (e.g., tomato).

  17. Such as through the specification of performance requirements (and accompanying indicators and public disclosure to enable monitoring and enforcement of the same) to impose certain obligations on foreign investments or investors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shanduko Trust, Centre for Agrarian and Environmental Studies, Harare, Zimbabwe

    Alois Mandondo

  2. University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA

    Laura German

  3. Forest Research Institute of Malawi, Zomba, Malawi

    Henry Utila & Ustanzious Martin Nthenda

Authors
  1. Alois Mandondo
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  2. Laura German
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  3. Henry Utila
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  4. Ustanzious Martin Nthenda
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Correspondence to Laura German.

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Mandondo, A., German, L., Utila, H. et al. Assessing Societal Benefits and Trade-Offs of Tobacco in the Miombo Woodlands of Malawi. Hum Ecol 42, 1–19 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-013-9620-x

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