The country’s sole tobacco seed producer, Tobacco Research Board (TRB) has changed its name to Kutsaga in a rebranding exercise that comes with an extended mandate of researching and producing other seed varieties relevant to the country’s agricultural needs.
As reported by this publication earlier this month, the institution will however continue to treat tobacco seed research and production as its primary focus but will also onboard other plant seeds such as potatoes, industrial hemp, macadamia and eucalyptus among others.
Previously, Kutsaga was the name of TRB’s headquarters in Harare.
The Tobacco Research Board was reconstituted as a statutory body in 1950 with a mandate to direct, control and carry out tobacco research in Zimbabwe and subject to the approval of the Minister such research outside the country as it may deem to be expedient.
“The transformed TRB is better positioned to continue delivering on its primary 11 mandate of conducting tobacco research and to its secondary mandates to deliver value to its stakeholders,” said board chair Stanley Mutepfa, in a speech read on his behalf.
“Our transformation remains ‘work in progress” as we are undergoing a restructuring process to improve our internal capacities, capabilities and competencies to generate the requisite efficiencies for the delivery of our new mandate.”
The government through the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development, directed in January 2021, that the institution reform and restructure to become the epicentre for national research, development and innovation on tobacco, inclusive of tobacco alternatives and alternates in order to contribute effectively to NDS1 and ultimately to Vision 2030.
TRB has in the past 73 years, developed and registered some 78 flue-cured, burley, air-cured and cigar wrapper varieties.
These elite varieties have in common, multiple disease resistances, high yield potential and 5 have at each stage of release been of the well sought after styles.
The yield potential of Kutsaga varieties has increased through research from about 800 kg/ha in the 1950s to 5 000 kg/ha currently and up to eight disease resistances have now been incorporated into hybrid varieties since the 1960s.
“Despite the TRB’s expanded mandate, I am happy to see that research work on tobacco has not suffered as evidenced by the fact that new genetics continue to be developed and a batch of four climate-smart varieties was released in March this year,” said Minister Of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water, And Rural Development, Dr Anxious Masuka.
Kutsaga’s burley variety B RK4 is widely grown in Malawi while the flue-cured variety K RK26R is very popular in Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia.
There is demand for its tobacco varieties, from as far as Ethiopia where K RK1 is widely sought after for its excellent leaf quality.
From being a wholly state-funded entity, the institution has over the years transformed itself into a self-sustainable entity through various revenue generating initiatives including sale of seed varieties into the export markets.
Audited accounts of the year 2022 show that tobacco levy contributed some 17% of the revenue while 83% was from Kutsaga commercial projects.
